University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


THE    ONE 
GREAT  QUESTION 

A  STUDY  OF  SOUTHERN  CON 
DITIONS  AT  CLOSE  RANGE 


By  SUTTON  E.  GRIGGS 

Author  of  "Imperium  in  Imperio," 
"  Overshadowed,"  "  Unfettered,'* 
"  Dorian's  Plan,"  "  The  Hin 
dered  Hand,"  Etc.,  Etc.,  Etc. 


THE  ORION  PUBLISHING  CO. 

PHILADELPHIA.  PA.    q     NASHVILLE,  TENN. 


« 


Copyrighted,  1907,  by 

THE  ORION  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
Nashville,  Tenn. 


' '  Is  the  statesmanship  of  our  times 
adequate  to  avert  a  direful  crisis?  Or, 
will  it  fail  to  solve  the  Negro  problem, 
just  as  the  statesmanship  of  1860  failed 
to  find  a  solution  by  the  bloody  expedient 
of  civil  war.  That  is  undoubtedly  the  one 
great  question  for  American  civilization  to 
answer." — HARPER'S  WEEKLY. 


Contents 


- 


PART  I. 


PACK 

The  Case  Stated 7 

Applying  the  Test  10 

The  Queen  City 11 

An  Illuminating  Incident 15 

The  Penalty  for  Saying  "Yes" 16 

A  Young  Woman  Fined  18 

Fleeing  from  Injustice 19 

Guarians  of  the  Peace 20 

The  Tom  Ray  Case  21 

The  Officer  Creeps 22 

i 

Just  to  See  Him  Run 24 

The  Writer  an  Eye-witness 26 

For  Standing  by  His  Sister 28 

Prison  Life   29 

A  Roll  Call 31 

A  Tuskegee  Professor 33 

5 


Contents 


PART  II.    THE  CASE  ARGUED.    , 

PAGE 

To  Be  Expected  39 

The  Larger  Results 40 

The  Aspiring  Negro 42 

Broad  Road  to  Depths,  But  Not  to  Heights 44 

The  White  South  Affected 45 

Destroying  the  Sentiment  of  Justice 46 

Leadership  of  the  White  South. 47 

Cheapened  Political  Life  51 

Must  Find  Fault 51 

The  Nation  52 

The  One  Solution  54 

A  Plan  of  Action 55 


The  One  Great  Question 


PART  I.    THE  CASE  STATED. 

The  late  Hon.  Carl  Schurz,  in  the  course  of  an 
article  published  a  few  years  since,  bearing  upon  the 
question  of  the  relation  of  the  races  in  the  South,  wrote 
as  follows :  ~ 

"And  here  is  the  crucial  point :  There  will  be  a 
movement  in  the  direction  of  reducing  the  Negroes 
to  a  permanent  condition  of  serfdom — the  condition 
of  mere  plantation  hands,  'alongside  the  mule/ 
practically  without  any  rights  of  citizenship — or  a 
movement  in  the  direction  of  recognizing  him  as  a 
citizen  in  the  true  sense  of  that  term.  One  or  the 
other  will  prevail." 

In  a  more  recent  article  appearing  in  the  Century 
Magazine,  the  Hon.  Charles  Francis  Adams  quotes, 
with  evident  approval,  the  following  from  Baker : 

"So  long  as  it  is  generally  considered  that  the 
Negro  and  the  white  man  are  to  be  governed  by 
the  same  laws  and  guided  by  the  same  manage 
ment,  so  long  will  the  former  remain  a  thorn  in 
the  side  of  every  community  to  which  he  may  un 
happily  belong." 

Owen  Wister,  in  his  recent  book,  "Lady  Balti 
more,"  essaying  to  photograph  the  current  thought  of 
the  young  North  groping  its  way  toward  settled  con 
victions,  represents  it  as  now  feeling  that  the  final 
status  of  the  American  Negro  is  to  be  and  ought  to  be 
"something  between  equality  and  slavery." 


The  Hon.  E.  W.  Carmack,  the  rather  brilliant 
young  United  States  Senator  from  Tennessee,  said,  in 
a  speech  delivered  not  long  since,  upon  the  occasion  of 
the  opening  of  his  campaign  for  re-election : 

"I  believe  this  is  a  white  man's  country,  a 
white  man's  civilization  and  a  white  man's  govern 
ment.  We  belong  to  a  race  that  has  never  yet 
divided  sovereignty  and  dominion." 

His  successful  opponent,  ex- Governor  Robert  L. 
Taylor,  in  stating  his  position  on  the  race  question,  said 
that  the  Negro  had  been  thoroughly  eliminated  from 
the  political  life  of  the  South,  and  therefore,  in  that 
respect,  was  no  longer  an  issue. 

Says  John  C.  Reed,  in  his  "The  Brothers'  War" : 

"Booker  Washington  is  a  great,  a  decisive  au 
thority  on  this  question.  He  counsels  the  Negro  to 
eschew  politics.  This  is  wise.  It  is  the  solid  inter 
est  of  the  Negro  masses  that  they  accept  the  inev 
itable,  just  as  the  South  gave  up  slavery  when  we 
could  hold  on  to  it  no  longer." 

In  the  course  of  an  editorial  bearing  on  the  race 
question,  Harper's  Weekly,  in  a  recent  issue,  remarks : 

"The  policy  personified  in  Governor  Varda- 
man  and  Mr.  Hoke  Smith  points,  of  course, 
straight  to  serfdom.  *  *  *  A  step  was  taken 
in  that  direction  when  the  Negro  was  disfran 
chised  *  *  *." 

Remarks  the  Baptist  Argus  (Kentucky)  : 

"Has  the  Negro  in  America  enough  wisdom  to 
adjust  himself  to  the  conditions  yearly  growing 
more  critical  ?  That  is  an  important  question ;  one 
of  far-reaching  moment.  Negro  leaders  need  to 
realize  that  the  future  of  their  people  depends  upon 
their  ability  to  make  the  best  of  the  fact  that  they 
are  in  a  country  governed  by  a  more  powerful  race ; 
a  race  which  would  reverse  all  of  its  history  and 


do  violence  to  all  of  its  ambitions  should  it  consent 
to  turn  any  part  of  its  government  over  to  another 
race.  This  is  a  fact,  and  not  a  theory,  which  con 
fronts  our  Negro  brethren,  and  foolish  is  the 
Negro  leader,  foolish  and  criminally  blind,  who 
would  inflame  his  people  with  any  hope  to  the  con 
trary.  Booker  Washington  is  right.  The  only 
hope  of  the  Negro  is  to  improve  himself,  to  get 
education  and  property,  and  by  wise  counsels  get 
the  best  terms,  as  the  future  unfolds,  which  the 
white  race  may  see  its  way  to  give." 

•  The  Wall  Street  Journal,  supposed  to  represent 
more  or  less  the  capitalistic  view  of  matters,  said  in  a 
somewhat  recent  editorial : 

"The  race  question  is  settled  if  the  dominant 
party  will  only  allow  it  to  stay  settled." 

In  the  citations  here  given  we  have  certain  north 
ern  white  men  of  wide  repute  suggesting  that  the 
nation  abandon  as  idle  its  dream  of  establishing  among 
its  citizens  an  equality  of  citizenship  without  regard  to 
"race,  color  or  previous* condition  of  servitude;"  south 
ern  men  proclaiming  it  as  the  fixed  policy  of  the  white 
South  to  deny  the  Negro  a  share  in  the  government, 
and  the  organ  of  the  money  power  proclaiming  that  the 
race  question  is  now  settled  if  the  dominant  political 
party  will  only  allow  it  to  so  remain. 

These  expressions  bear  out  in  full  the  prediction  of 
Mr.  Schurz  as  to  a  movement  looking  toward  the  aban 
donment  of  the  contest  for  full-fledged  citizenship  for 
the  Negro. 

The  content  of  the  suggestion  put  forth  is  that  the 
South  be  definitely  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  nation ; 
that  in  other  sections  the  country's  march  towards  its 
destiny  be  made  over  the  hopeful  highway  of  a  democ 
racy,  while  in  Dixie  the  journey  is  to  be  made  in  a  soft 
ol  oligarchical  by-path. 


The  more  humane  among  those  who  hold  that  the 
ideal  situation  is  one  in  which  the  government  is  admin 
istered  for  the  Negroes  and  the  whites  by  an  exclusive 
white  regime  promise  that  the  system  will  stimulate  the 
Negroes  along  material  lines,  will  foster  education,  ad 
minister  justice,  safeguard  human  life  and  advance  the 
interests  of  civilization  in  general.  The  more  rational 
of  the  advocates  of  this  plan  of  adjustment  of  the  rela 
tion  of  the  races  do  not  favor  an  agitation  looking  to  the 
repeal  of  the  fifteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
but  hope  for  its  nullification  through  a  policy  of  non- 
enforcement,  backed  by  an  acquiescing  public  opinion. 

APPLYING  THE  TEST. 

Precisely  the  system  which  is  here  proposed  as  a 
permanent  solution  of  the  race  question,  a  system  with 
the  Negro  occupying  that  "something  between  equality 
and  slavery"  condition  suggested  by  Mr.  Wister,  has 
been  in  vogue  in  various  of  the  southern  States  for  a 
number  of  years.  In  view  of  the  prominence  of  those 
supporting  the  proposition  to  make  this  condition  per 
manent  a  careful  scrutiny  of  its  fruitage  would  seem  to 
be  peculiarly  in  order.  Being  somewhat  familiar  with 
the  actual  workings  of  this  system,  having  seen  it  thor 
oughly  tested  on  sundry  occasions,  we  have  thought  to 
pilot  our  readers  on  a  visit  to  the  regions  in  question, 
that  they  may  note  the  kind  of  fruit  the  tree  of  repres 
sion  bears. 

Such  of  the  whites  of  the  South  as  are  opposed  to 
according  the  Negro  the  full  measure  of  his  rights  as 
set  forth  in  the  Constitution  have  usually  found  the 
means  of  making  it  thoroughly  uncomfortable  for  such 
southern  white  men  as  Professor  Sledd  and  George 
W.  Cable,  who  have  written  contrary  to  their  point  of 
view,  and  having  thus  practically  acquired  a  monopoly 

10 


of  local  expression  have  been  wont  to  taunt  those  who 
write  from  a  distance  with  the  fact  that  they  are  not  on 
the  scene,  do  not  thoroughly  understand  local  condi 
tions  and  hence  write  as  mere  theorists.  A  premium 
has  thus  been  laid  on  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  situa 
tion.  The  writer  has  lived  in  the  South  practically  the 
whole  of  the  thirty-four  years  thus  far  accorded  him, 
and  for  the  past  seven  years  has  resided  in  the  city  of 
Nashville,  Tennessee.  For  the  purpose  of  meeting  the 
most  exacting  demands  of  those  who  call  for  first-hand 
knowledge,  and  at  the  risk  of  being  accused  of  descend 
ing  to  the  particular,  we  shall  confine  our  recital  of  con 
ditions  largely  to  such  incidents  as  have  come  more  or 
less  under  our  own  observation  or  the  observation  of 
persons  known  to  the  writer  personally. 

THE  QUEEN  CITY. 

It  occurs  to  us  that  there  is  a  unique  value  at 
tached  to  the  fact  that  our  portrayal  of  conditions  will, 
under  the  rule  laid  down,  be  confined  largely  to  our 
present  place  of  residence,  Nashville,  Tennessee — in 
view  of  the  high  standing  of  that  city  as  an  exponent  of 
southern  civilization  at  its  best. 

Upon  the  general  proposition  that  Nashville  does 
thus  represent  southern  civilization,  we  would  scarcely 
expect  much  dissent.  During  a  visit  to  the  city  a  few 
years  since  the  Hon.  Charles  H.  Grosvenor,  of  Ohio, 
remarked  in  the  course  of  an  address  to  the  Legislature 
of  Tennessee : 

"Taken  all  in  all,  Nashville  is  about  the  best 
city  in  the  South." 

Philanthropists,  with  the  education  of  the  two  races 
at  heart,,  seemed  to  regard  the  city  as  a  rather  ideal, 
strategic  educational  center  for  both  races,  and  as  a 

ii 


result  more  than  eight  millions  of  dollars  are  here 
invested  in  educational  institutions. 

In  the  course  of  an  address  delivered  somewhat 
recently  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  in  the  city  of  Phila 
delphia,  Prof.  Booker  T.  Washington  spoke  substan 
tially  as  follows : 

"We  are  accustomed  to  hear  much  about  race 
prejudice  in  the  South.  You  will  pardon  me  if  I  re 
late   some  of   my   personal    experiences,   a   thing 
which  I  do  not  like  much  to  do.    Take  the  city  of 
Nashville,  for  an  example.   Recently  I  visited  that 
city  and  one  of  the  most  aristocratic  white  churches 
of  the  city  threw  open  its  doors  to  me  to  address 
the  white  people,  and  the  building  was  crowded 
before  the  hour  for  the  speaking  to  begin." 
The  impression  created  upon   the  minds  of  his 
hearers  by  Mr.  Washington's  remarks  was  very  favor 
able  to  the  city  of  Nashville,  which  impression  was, 
perhaps,  a  true  reflection  of  that  made  upon  his  mind 
by  the  hospitality  extended  him  by  the  white  people  of 
that  city.    If  we  are  to  credit  the  public  expressions  of 
other  visitors  made  from  time  to  time,  it  is  a  fact  that 
Nashville  has  a  way  of  commending  itself  quite  gener 
ally  to  the  good  will  of  the  stranger  within  its  gates.  If, 
then,  in  Nashville  we  are  to  behold  the  South's  highest 
mountain  peak,  the  imagination  of  the  reader  is  at  lib 
erty  to  conceive  its  deepest  valley.    "If  they  do  these 
things  in  the  green  tree,  what  shall  be  done  in  the 
dry?" 

To  begin  with,  Nashville  is  a  repressionist  city, 
having  all  the  earmarks  of  such.  During  the  recent 
presidential  campaign  it  was  in  this  city,  and  before 
what  was  said  to  be  the  flower  of  the  white  race,  that 
Senator  E.  W.  Carmack  made  the  applause-provoking 
declaration : 

"The  man  who  does  not  know  the  difference 

12 


between   a  white  man  and  a  'nigger*  is  not  fit 
to  be  President." 

Somewhat  recently,  one  of  Nashville's  and  Ten 
nessee's  most  noted  citizens,  the  Hon.  John  J.  Vertrees, 
took  the  position  in  a  published  statement  that  the 
Negro  should  be  denied  the  right  to  vote  because  of  his 
race,  and  that  the  white  people  of  the  South  will  re 
sort  to  violence,  if  necessary,  to  eliminate  the  Negroes 
from  politics  when  in  large  numbers  they  overcome  the 
present  handicaps  of  illiteracy  and  poverty  and  meas 
ure  up  to  all  the  requirements  imposed  by  the  present 
disfranchising  laws. 

The  elimination  of  the  Negro  from  the  politics  of 
the  city  of  Nashville  is  not  brought  about  directly  by 
legislation,  but  by  the  predominance  of  the  repression- 
ist  sentiment  among  the  whites.  Primaries  are  held 
from  which  Negroes  are  excluded  because  of  their 
racial  connection,  and,  when  the  primaries  are  regarded 
as  having  been  fairly  conducted,  contumely  is  visited 
upon  any  white  man  who  dares  to  attempt  to  thwart 
the  expressed  wish  of  the  white  primary  by  an  alliance 
with  Negro  voters. 

We  are  now  to  see  how  the  Negroes  fare  in  this 
ideal  southern  city  in  which,  by  the  sentiment  of  so 
many  of  their  white  neighbors,  they  are  denied  a  voice 
in  the  city's  government. 

In  the  city  of  Nashville  there  are  three  univer 
sities  for  the  education  of  the  Negroes,  and  the  in 
fluence  of  these  institutions,  coupled  with  the  work  of 
the  public  schools,  has  quickened  the  interest  of  the 
Negro  population  in  the  matter  of  the  education  of  their 
young.  The  facilities  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
Negro  children  in  the  city  public  schools  are  not  now 
and  for  years  have  not  been  adequate  for  their  needs. 

13 


It  is  estimated  by  competent  authorities  that  seating 
facilities  exist  for  not  more  than  one  out  of  four  Negro 
children  of  school  age.  As  a  result  many  Negro  chil 
dren  are  annually  denied  admission  to  the  schools  from 
a  sheer  lack  of  room.  The  writer  remembers  quite  well 
the  look  of  keen  disappointment  on  the  face  of  his 
seven-year-old  girl  when  he  was  told  by  the  principal  of 
the  school  to  which  he  had  taken  her  that  there  was  no 
room  for  her. 

Mass  meetings  have  been  held  by  the  Negroes, 
committees  have  been  appointed  to  lay  the  facts  before 
the  School  Board,  City  Councilmen  have  been  person 
ally  besieged,  School  Superintendents  have  pointed  out 
the  need  of  more  room  to  Boards  of  Education,  and  the 
Boards  of  Education  have  recommended  increases  to 
the  City  Council,  but  all  to  no  avil.  When  the  writer 
last  inquired  of  the  Negro  leader  of  the  movement  for 
increased  facilities  as  to  the  status  of  affairs,  the  fol 
lowing  was  the  answer: 

"Our  friends  among  the  whites  have  told  me  to 
keep  quiet ;  that  the  Board  of  Education  has  asked 
for  an  appropriation  of  sufficient  size  to  enable 
them  to  squeeze  out  another  building  for  us.  And 
if  the  appropriation  is  made  as  asked  for,  we  may 
get  the  school  by  having  kept  the  City  Council  in 
ignorance  as  to  what  was  being  done." 

This  is  the  manner  in  which  the  repressed  have  to 
struggle  in  the  enlightened  repressionist  city  of  Nash 
ville  to  save  their  children  from  ignorance  and  evil- 
breeding  idleness.  The  City  Councilmen  are  hedged 
about  by  the  white  primary  system,  and  care  nothing 
for  the  agonizings  of  the  Negroes  from  whose  political 
wrath  they  are  securely  shielded. 

14 


AN  ILLUMINATING  INCIDENT. 

Negro  roustabouts  engaged  in  the  Cumberland 
river  traffic  between  Nashville  and  other  points  began 
to  give  accounts  of  life  on  the  river  that  poisoned  the 
minds  of  Negro  laborers  in  general  against  that  form  of 
employment.  Among  other  things  they  charged  that 
the  men  were  worked  without  proper  shifts  in  the  force 
being  made;  that  they  were  not  provided  with  decent 
sleeping  quarters,  but  were  compelled  to  sleep  on  the 
bare  floors  and  near  the  boilers  for  warmth ;  that  their 
food  was  served  to  them  in  one  huge  pan  out  of  which 
all  the  workmen  were  compelled  to  eat  at  the  one  time, 
each  using  a  large  spoon ;  that  the  petty  officers  were 
very  tyrannical,  feeling  themselves  amply  protected  by 
stringent  United  States  laws  against  insubordination 
on  the  seas;  that  often  when  a  piece  of  freight  was 
dropped  by  accident  into  the  water  the  party  dropping 
it  had  to  choose  between  jumping  into  the  river  after  it 
or  being  clubbed  by  the  white  officer  in  charge  of  the 
work,  and  that  roustabouts  thus  forced  to  jump  over 
board  had  lost  their  lives.  As  a  result  of  these  accounts 
of  the  treatment  accorded  roustabouts,  that  form  of 
labor  lost  all  attraction  for  Negro  laborers. 

When  boat  owners  found  themselves  in  straits  for 
labor,  they  repaired  to  the  City  Hall  and  related  how 
difficult  it  was  for  them  to  get  roustabouts  even  by 
offering  greater  pay  than  was  usual.  To  solve  the  prob 
lem,  on  one  occasion  a  squad  of  policemen  appeared  on 
certain  business  streets,  rounded  up  indiscriminately  all 
Negroes  that  happened  to  be  in  sight  at  that  time,  and 
drove  them  aboard  one  of  these  boats  needing  labor,  as 
they  would  so  many  slaves. 

During  the  summer  months  these  river  boats 
are  used  largely  for  excursion  purposes  to  carry  the 

15 


various  Negro  churches  and  Sunday  Schools  on  annual 
outings.  As  a  protest  against  the  alleged  treatment  of 
these  roustabouts  these  forty  or  fifty  churches,  with 
possibly  two  exceptions,  joined  in  a  boycott  of  the 
boats  and  declined  their  use  for  pleasure  purposes 
throughout  the  summer  following  this  crisis  in  the 
labor  situation  on  the  river. 

But  the  practice  of  enforced  labor  has  not  been 
abandoned.  Whenever  there  is  a  scarcity  of  labor  on 
the  river,  complaint  is  made  at  the  City  Hall  and  police 
men  are  forthwith  sent  to  arrest  Negroes  who  have  the 
appearance  of  being  out  of  work,  and  who,  when  ar 
rested,  are  told  to  choose  between  being  fined  and  sent 
to  the  chain  gang  and  going  to  work  on  the  boats. 

The  business  men  who  help  to  make  Mayors  re 
ceive  prompt  attention  from  the  hands  of  the  author 
ities.  The  dumb  laborers,  shut  out  from  the  governing 
force,  cannot  so  much  as  get  their  grievances  investi 
gated. 

THE  PENALTY  FOR  SAYING  "YES." 

We  pass  now  to  the  matter  of  the  administration 
of  justice  in  the  city  of  Nashville,  choosing  such  cases 
to  illustrate  its  operation  as  have  come  more  or  less 
under  the  direct  observation  of  the  writer.  If  we  go 
somewhat  minutely  into  this  phase  of  our  subject,  bear 
with  us,  as  the  results  issuing  from  the  Courts  are  far- 
reaching  in  their  bearings  upon  the  welfare  of  the  na 
tion,  a  fact  that  will  soon  perhaps  be  apparent  to  the 
mind  of  the  most  unwilling  reader. 

In  the  city  of  Nashville  there  resides  a  Negro 
minister,  who,  though  comparatively  unlearned,  has 
succeeded  in  building  up  a  religious  publishing  house  to 
the  point  where  it  does  a  business  of  over  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars  annually.  This  Negro  insti- 

16 


tution,  it  is  said,  does  a  larger  amount  of  business  with 
the  Nashville  postoffice  than  any  other  local  concern. 

One  evening  one  of  the  young  women  in  the  steno 
graphic  department  was  detained  after  hours  in  order 
that  some  very  urgent  correspondence  might  receive 
due  attention.  When  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  night 
the  young  woman  was  ready  to  leave,  the  daughter  of 
the  head  of  the  establishment  loaned  her  a  cloak  to 
protect  her  from  the  increased  chilliness  of  the  air, 
while  a  son  of  the  publisher  offered  his  services  as  an 
escort. 

When,  a  few  minutes  later,  the  young  woman  ar 
rived  at  her  door,  she  handed  the  borrowed  cloak  to 
the  young  man  to  be  returned  to  his  sister.  He  threw 
the  cloak  across  his  arm  and  proceeded  toward  his 
home,  it  still  being  in  the  early  part  of  the  night. 

Two  policemen  saw  him  and  called  to  him  to  halt. 
Not  knowing  that  they  were  addressing  him,  he  contin 
ued  walking.  They  called  a  second  time,  saying,  "you 
fellow  there  with  the  cloak  on  your  arm." 

The  young  man  now  halted  and  the  officers  drew 
near.  They  questioned  him  as  to  his  residence  and  so 
forth,  he  replying  to  their  queries.  In  answer  to  one  of 
their  questions  he  said  "yes." 

"Don't  you  say  'yes'  to  me,  you  d— d  nigger 
you ;  I'll  beat  your  head  off,"  said  the  enraged  officer. 
.  The  young  man  was  taken  to  the  city  jail,  locked 
in  a  cell  and  kept  there  for  some  time  before  he  was 
allowed  to  communicate  with  his  family.  Finally  his 
father  was  reached  and  came  to  furnish  bail. 

In  due  course  the  young  man  was  arraigned  for 
trial.  The  cloak  was  his  sister's,  and  the  ownership 
thereof  was  never  in  dispute.  The  hour  at  which  the 
young  man  was  abroad  was  not  an  unseasonable  one, 

17 


and  no  objection  was  due  on  that  score.  He  was  by  no 
means  a  vagrant,  as  he  was  engaged  in  legitimate 
service,  drawing  a  larger  monthly  salary,  perhaps,  than 
the  officers  that  arrested  him.  There  were  present  in 
the  Court  white  persons  and  Negroes  high  in  the  busi 
ness  world  to  testify  to  the  young  man's  character. 
This  young  man  was  one  of  the  most  orderly,  straight 
forward,  inoffensive  young  men  it  has  been  the  pleas 
ure  of  the  writer  to  know.  Yet  he  was  adjudged  a 
criminal  and  a  fine  of  ten  dollars  was  set  down  upon 
the  books  opposite  his  name. 

After  the  record  had  been  made  and  the  young 
man's  name  handed  down  to  posterity  as  a  criminal, 
to  the  marring  of  the  family  record  of  the  publisher, 
the  Court  magnanimously  decided  to  remit  the  fine, 
taking  care,  however  to  allow  the  judgment  of  guilty 
to  stand.  The  offense  charged  was  abusive  language 
addressed  to  the  officers,  which  the  young  man,  on  his 
oath,  swore  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  leaving 
off  of  the  "sir"  in  response  to  a  question.  His  accusers 
did  not  mention  a  single  word  of  abuse  that  he  used, 
simply  stating  to  the  Court  that  the  young  man's  man 
ner  was  very  offensive.  As  it  was  very  offensive  in 
some  quarters  for  a  Negro  to  leave  off  the  "sir,"  there 
was  no  necessary  conflict  between  the  testimony  of  the 
young  man  and  the  officers  on  this  point. 

A  YOUNG  WOMAN  FINED. 

A  young  Negro  woman,  highly  esteemed  by  the 
people  of  her  race,  a  graduate  of  the  City  High  School 
and  from  the  business  course  of  one  of  the  local  uni 
versities  for  colored  people,  was  arraigned  before  the 
City  Judge  about  whose  Court  we  have  just  written. 
The  charge  against  the  young  woman,  in  the  Judge's 
own  words,  was  that  she  "might  have  given  the  white 

18 


lady  a  more  civil  answer"  to  a  question.  She  had  been 
dragged  from  her  parents'  home  into  which  policemen 
had  entered  without  due  warrant  of  law.  Her  father 
had  been  refused  the  privilege  of  taking  her  to  the 
station  in  his  own  vehicle,  and  the  mother  the  privilege 
of  riding  with  her  in  the  patrol  wagon. 

She  was  adjudged  a  criminal  and  fined  five  dollars. 
There  was  absolutely  no  mention  of  vulgarity,  boister- 
ousness,  or  abusive  language.  The  reply  of  the  young 
woman  to  a  commonplace  question  by  a  white  woman 
was  not  deemed  as  civil  as  it  might  have  been,  and  so 
the  young  Negro  woman  had  her  name  entered  upon 
the  record  books  as  a  criminal. 

During  the  proceedings  in  the  City  Court  in  both 
of  the  cases  cited  the  writer  was  present  throughout 
and  saw  for  himself  the  workings  of  the  Court.  Such 
was  the  justice  meted  out  when  the  parties  accused 
were  intelligent,  members  of  good  families,  having 
records  in  the  community  absolutely  untarnished,  and 
able  to  employ  legal  talent  to  defend  themselves. 

FLEEING  FROM  INJUSTICE. 

All  elements  of  the  Negro  population  have  grown 
to  regard  the  Courts  as  the  temple  of  injustice,  rather 
than  the  temple  of  justice.  The  spot  of  all  others  that 
should  be  deemed  sacred  to  the  cause  of  right  is  regard 
ed  as  doubly  sure  to  be  guilty  of  wrong. 

The  lower  stratum  of  Negro  life  gathers  in  great 
numbers  on  Court  days  and  keenly  watches  the  dis 
pensing  of  the  repressionist  brand  of  justice.  The 
Negroes  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  as  between 
an  accusing  policeman  and  a  prisoner,  there  is  abso 
lutely  no  chance  for  the  prisoner. 

This  prevalent  belief  has  influenced  the  Negro 
youths,  however  innocent,  to  decide  to  take  no  chances 

19 


before  this  Court.  As  a  result  when  they  are  accosted 
by  a  policeman,  if  they  feel  that  they  have  anything 
like  a  chance  to  get  away,  they  run,  regarding  their 
conviction,  be  they  guilty  or  innocent,  as  an  assured 
fact  if  but  arrested.  To  counteract  this  running  habit 
the  policemen  adopted  the  practice  of  shooting  to  kill 
all  Negroes  who,  when  accosted,  dared  to  run. 

GUARDIANS  OF  THE  PEACE. 

We  shall  now  cite  several  cases,  the  first  four  of 
which  occurred  within  a  period  of  about  six  weeks. 

At  a  wholly  seasonable  hour  of  the  night  a  number 
of  Negro  youths  were  walking  along  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  city.  They  were  in  no  way  breaking  the  law, 
but  an  officer,  for  some  reason,  desired  to  interrogate 
them.  They  were  respectable  young  boys,  belonging  to 
good  families,  and  unaccustomed  to  Court  troubles. 
Though  conscious  of  the  fact  that  they  were  not  guilty 
of  any  offense,  yet  fearing  that  they  would  be  fined, 
they  ran.  The  policeman  fired  several  times  at  the  flee 
ing  group,  and  succeeded  in  killing  one  of  the  number, 
the  fatal  bullet  having  entered  the  victim's  back.  No 
punishment  of  any  character  has  ever  been  meted  out  to 
this  officer. 

A  Negro  man,  evidently  a  stranger  in  Nashville, 
was  walking  through  the  railroad  yards  when  he  was 
called  upon  by  the  guard  to  halt.  He  was  making 
no  threatening  demonstration — was  simply  passing 
through  the  yards.  Failing  to  stop  when  called  to  by 
the  guard,  he  was  shot  and  killed.  No  punishment  was 
administered  to  his  slayer,  who  was  not  even  brought 
to  trial. 

A  Negro  was  arrested  for  vagrancy,  fined  five  dol 
lars  and  placed  in  the  chain  gang.  The  pick  that  was 
placed  about  his  ankle  to  prevent  his  escape  dropped 

20 


off  in  the  course  of  the  day.  Finding  himself  so  unex 
pectedly  unhampered,  the  Negro  began  to  run  in  the 
hope  of  escaping.  Though  the  offense  charged  was  but 
vagrancy,  and  the  fine  being  worked  out  but  five  dol 
lars,  the  guard  felt  warranted  in  taking  the  life  of  the 
fleeing  Negro.  He  fired,  killing  the  Negro.  No  pun 
ishment  was  inflicted  upon  this  guard. 

THE  TOM  RAY  CASE. 

We  shall  now  cite  a  case  in  which  the  position  of 
the  Negro  in  the  community  in  the  matter  of  having  his 
life  protected  was  most  squarely  brought  to  a  test.  As 
we  are  trying  to  set  forth  the  essential  character  of 
Nashville  civilization,  typical  of  a  repressionist  regime, 
we  again  beg  pardon  for  the  minuteness  which  will  just 
now  characterize  our  statement. 

Two  young  Negro  men  called  one  evening  to  see  a 
young  Negro  woman.  These  parties  were  all  of  the 
humbler,  though  not  criminal  walks  of  life.  Tom  Ray, 
one  of  the  two  young  men,  seems  to  have  offended  the 
young  woman  by  leaving  her  home  and  taking  the 
other  caller,  in  whom  the  young  woman  was  interested, 
away  sooner  than  she  desired. 

On  a  Saturday  evening,  we  think,  candidates  for 
Democratic  primary  nominations  were  holding  a  meet 
ing  in  one  of  the  wards,  and  Tom  Ray  was  stand 
ing  on  the  outskirts  of  the  throng  listening  to  the 
speeches.  The  Negro  girl  whom  he  had  offended  in  the 
manner  mentioned  above,  saw  him,  approached  and 
chided  him  for  having  treated  her  as  he  did.  Tom  dis 
avowed  responsibility  for  the  leaving  of  the  other 
young  man,  but  this  did  not  pacify  the  young  woman. 
In  order  to  wreak  vengeance  on  Tom  she  accosted  an 
officer  and  told  him  that  he  was  carrying  a  pistol. 

21 


The  officer  sought  Tom  and  caught  hold  of  him 
for  the  purpose  of  making  an  arrest.  Tom  shed  his 
coat,  leaving  it  in  the  hands  of  the  officer  while  he  made 
his  escape.  The  officer  fired,  but  did  not  succeed  in  hit 
ting  him. 

On  a  previous  occasion  this  officer  had  arrested 
Tom  as  a  vagrant,  but  Tom's  white  employer  having 
appeared  for  him,  he  was  not  convicted.  Tom's  previ 
ous  victory  over  this  officer,  and  his  escape  in  the  pres 
ent  instance,  seems  to  have  nettled  the  policeman. 

In  order  to  make  clear  what  is  now  to  follow,  we 
submit  the  following  diagram : 

MARK      5T. 


UJ 

-J 


PO  tCHte 


SALO3N 


LI5CHEY 


. 


ALLEY 


GATE 


or 

UJ 
H 

O 


QJ 


THE  OFFICER  CREEPS. 

On  the  Tuesday  night  following  the  Saturday  night 
mentioned  above,  a  number  of  persons  sitting  on 
porches  at  the  point  indicated  in  the  diagram,  saw  Tom 
Ray  walk  out  of  a  saloon  on  Foster  street  and  enter 
the  mouth  of  Lischey  street  He  turned  back  rather 
suddenly  and  went  across  Foster  into  Mark  street. 
While  the  persons  on  the  porches  were  still  wondering 
why  Tom  had  changed  his  route  so  suddenly,  two 


22 


officers  were  seen  entering  Foster  street  from  Lischey. 
The  trouble  that  Tom  Ray  had  on  Saturday  night 
having  been  duly  reported  in  the  daily  papers,  the 
parties  on  the  porches  knowing  Tom,  now  readily 
understood  that  he  had  seen  the  officers,  whom  he  was 
about  to  meet,  and  as  a  consequence  had  changed  his 
course. 

The  two  officers  conversed  a  while  on  the  corner  of 
Foster  and  Lischey,  one  going  west  on  Foster  and  the 
other  east.  The  officer  going  east  entered  a  gate  and 
crouched  out  of  sight  almost  directly  opposite  the 
porches  on  which  the  persons  mentioned  were  sitting. 

Tom  Ray  passed  down  Mark  street  to  alley  I,  came 
through  alley  i  to  alley  2,  through  alley  2  back  to  Fos 
ter  street.  Approaching  the  people  sitting  on  the  first 
porch,  he  said :  "Did  you  see  two  cops  pass  here 
a  while  ago?" 

The  parties  addressed  were  afraid  to  talk  freely  to 
Tom,  for  the  officer  in  hiding  across  the  street  could 
easily  hear  whatever  might  be  said.  One  of  the  women 
on  the  porch  said :  "You  had  better  go  on  about  your 
business,  Tom."  Her  husband,  who  was  sitting,  arose 
and  walked  rapidly  across  his  porch  trying  to  hint  to 
Tom  to  be  in  a  hurry. 

Tom  did  not  apprehend  what  the  man  was  seek 
ing  to  convey.  He  said :  "You  know  the  cops  are  after 
me.  I  am  willing  to  be  arrested  by  the  day  cops,  but  not 
by  the  night  ones,  for  they  have  a  way  of  clubbing  you 
nearly  to  death.  They  club  you  up  for  nothing." 

"You  had  better  go  on,  Tom,"  remarked  the 
woman,  who  had  previously  spoken  to  him. 

Tom  left  the  porch  and  walked  diagonally  across 
the  street,  toward  the  mouth  of  Lischey,  stopping  an 
instant  in  the  middle  of  the  street  to  adjust  his  shoe. 

23 


The  policeman  now  crept  from  his  hiding  place  and  be 
gan  to  move  stealthily  toward  him. 

At  about  this  time  a  number  of  men  and  women 
from  a  nearby  Negro  church  were  entering  Foster 
street  from  Mark,  and  saw  the  Negro  walking  along 
and  the  officer  creeping  up  behind  him.  They  watched 
with  extreme  interest  what  was  taking  place,  as  did  also 
the  persons  sitting  on  the  porches  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  for  many  minutes  been  eye-witnesses  of  the  ma- 
noeuvering  of  Tom  and  the  officers. 

According  tp  the  sworn  affidavits  of  eye-witnesses, 
whom  the  writer  has  known  for  years,  and  for  whose 
general  truthfulness  he  can  most  positively  vouch, 
when  the  officer  drew  near  to  Tom,  to  the  amazement  of 
all  he  lifted  his  pistol  and  fired,  the  fatal  bullet  entering 
Tom's  jugular  vein.  Tom  sprang  into  the  air  and  the 
officer  leaped  toward  him,  the  two  falling  together. 

An  effort  was  made  to  have  this  officer  indicted, 
but  all  to  no  avail.  A  Negro  lawyer  who  had  been  em 
ployed  in  connection  with  a  white  lawyer  to  labor  for 
an  indictment  was  spoken  to  thus  by  the  court  official 
whose  duty  it  was  to.  summon  witnesses : 

"You  are  the  cause  of  all  this,"  said  he,  referring  to 
the  investigation.  "If  it  hadn't  been  for  you  there 
would  not  have  been  anything  of  it.  The  first  thing 
you  know,  you  are  going  to  be  killed."  This  court 
official,  and  all  others  under  a  repressionist  regime,  can 
afford  to  use  the  entire  legal  machinery  for  the  protec 
tion  of  those  who  murder  Negroes  and  yet  fear  noth 
ing,  as  the  white  primary  shields  them  from  the  Negro 
voter  that  would  vote  for  court  officials  who  would 
punish  rather  than  shield  crime. 

JUST  TO  SEE  HIM  RUN. 

There  are  numbers  of  white  men  in  the  South  who 
revolt  at  wrong,  and  will  aid  the  cause  of  justice  when 

24 


their  attention  is  called  thereto.  But  we  are  now  to  cite 
a  case  that  will  show  just  how  much  justice  can  be 
wrung  from  the  courts  of  the  repressionists  in  cases  in 
which  Negroes  are  involved,  even  when  white  people  of 
standing  are  engineering  matters. 

An  aged,  inoffensive  Negro  boarded  a  street  car  on 
his  way  home.  He  gave  the  conductor,  he  claimed, 
fifty  cents,  and  was  handed  five  cents  in  change.  He  in 
sisted  on  getting  forty-five  cents,  but  was  refused. 
When  the  car  reached  the  end  of  the  line  the  conductor 
got  off  and  likewise  the  Negro,  who  renewed  his  re 
quest  for  proper  change.  The  conductor  thereupon 
opened  fire  upon  him.  The  Negro  turned  to  run  and 
the  conductor  chased  him,  firing  four  shots  in  all.  The 
Negro  was  wounded,  dragged  himself  home  and  died. 

The  white  people  who  held  him  as  their  property 
in  the  days  of  slavery  heard  of  the  incident  and  took 
an  active  interest  in  the  effort  to  punish  the  conductor. 
Being  influential,  they  succeeded  in  having  him  indicted 
and  brought  to  trial.  His  defense  was  that  he  shot  in 
self-defense. 

"Well,  if  you  were  shooting  in  self-defense,  why 
did  you  shoot  after  he  began  to  run  ?"  asked  a  lawyer. 

"Well,  I  just  shot  at  him  to  see  him  run,"  was  his 
reply. 

In  the  face  of  the  sworn  statement  that  he  shot  at 
the  Negro  to  see  him  run,  the  jury  assessed  his  punish 
ment  at  five  years  in  the  penitentiary.  An  empty  flask  of 
whiskey  was  found  in  the  jury  room,  and  upon  the 
strength  of  this  find  the  lawyers  for  the  defense  ap 
plied  for  and  were  granted  a  new  trial  for  the  con 
ductor.  On  the  occasion  of  the  second  trial  the  con 
ductor  was  given  two  years  in  the  penitentiary.  He 
stayed  there  a  few  months,  when  a  petition  was  circu- 

25  ' 


lated   in   his   behalf   and   he   was   pardoned   by   the 
Governor. 

THE  WRITER  AN  EYE-WITNESS. 

A  Negro  boy,  whom,  for  the  sake  of  a  name,  we 
call  Henry,  got  into  an  altercation  with  some  white 
boys,  in  which  altercation  no  one  was  hurt.  He  was  ar 
rested,  tried  and  sentenced  to  ten  months  on  the  county 
farm.  Having  heard  horrible  tales  as  to  the  treatment 
accorded  prisoners  on  this  farm,  to  which  conditions 
we  advert  later,  Henry  decided  to  jump  out  of  the 
court  house  window  and  make  an  effort  to  escape. 
*"Arising  quickly  he  sprang  up  into  the  court  house 
window.  An  officer  rushed  toward  him  to  intercept 
him,  but  it  was  too  late.  Out  of  the  window  he  jumped, 
dropping  to  the  pavement  below.  He  dashed  out  of  the 
side  gate  of  the  court  house  yard  and  ran  southward 
across  the  square,  in  the  center  of  which  the  court 
house  stood.  Coming  to  the  street  which  led  to  the 
bridge  over  the  river  that  intersected  the  city,  he 
turned  eastward  and  started  across  the  bridge  with  all 
the  speed  at  his  command. 

The  court  officials  were  now  in  hot  pursuit  of  the 
fleeing  lad,  one  officer  seizing  a  buggy,  another  jump 
ing  upon  a  street  car  and  ordering  the  motorman  to 
proceed  at  his  utmost  speed. 

Henry  had  almost  covered  the  full  length  of  the 
bridge  when  the  cry  of  the  officers,  caught  up  from 
one  to  another,  had  about  come  up  with  him.  When 
he  had  all  but  reached  the  farther  end  of  the  bridge, 
in  order  to  avoid  an  officer  whom  he  saw  standing 
awaiting  him  with  a  drawn  pistol,  he  leaped  over  the 
railing  and  dropped  about  twenty  feet,  striking  the 

*  The  Hindered  Hand. 

26 


embankment  reared  up  for  a  resting  place  for  the  end 
of  the  bridge. 

This  officer  of  the  law  saw  Henry  leap,  and  ran 
to  the  steps,  which  were  not  far  from  the  spot  whence 
he  had  jumped.  The  officer  reached  the  steps  in  time 
to  see  Henry  sliding  toward  the  water's  edge.  The 
officer  began  running  down  the  steps,  shooting  as  he 
ran.  The  people  on  the  bridge  crowded  to  the  side  over 
which  Henry  had  leaped  and  witnessed  the  race  be 
tween  Henry  and  the  shooting  officer.  Henry  fell,  and 
it  was  thought  that  he  was  hit,  but  he  arose  and  con 
tinued  his  running.  He  turned  under  the  bridge  and 
ran  along  parallel  with  the  waters  of  the  river.  After 
passing  fully  under  the  bridge,  Henry  plunged  into  the 
stream  and  ran  somewhat  diagonally  toward  the  center 
of  the  river  until  he  was  up  to  his  neck  in  water. 

'Move  a  step  further  out  and  I  will  kill  you/  said 
a  bareheaded  officer  who  had  at  last  reached  the  river 
bank,  brandishing  his  pistol  as  he  spoke. 

By  this  time  hundreds — perhaps  a  thousand  or  so 
of  people — had  gathered  on  the  bridge.  Henry  stood 
in  the  water  tossing  his  arms  up  and  down.  He  feared 
to  come  ashore  and  was  equally  afraid  to  try  to  swim 
further  out,  feeling  that  he  would  be  killed  in  any 
event.  Some  one  on  the  bridge  lifted  a  revolver  to  the 
railing,  leveled  it  at  Henry's  head  and  fired. 

'Shame!  Shame!  Shame!'  was  the  word  passed 
from  lip  to  lip  as  the  noise  of  the  shot  was  heard. 
Henry  threw  up  his  hands  and  fell,  his  arms  up- 
stretched  above  his  head  as  he  disappeared  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  water.  No  one  of  the  thousands  stirred. 
In  breathless  silence  they  watched  the  spot  where  the 
lad  had  sunk  out  of  sight.  Some  felt  that  Henry  had 
simply  dived  and  in  due  time  would  rise.  Second  after 

27 


second  passed;  on  the  brief  moments  of  time  flew, 
while  the  eager  eyes  of  the  multitude  were  fastened 
on  the  murky  waters  of  the  river.  Henry  did  not  rise. 
He  was  dead.  When  it  was  known  that  life  must  be 
extinct,  officers  of  the  law  rowed  out  to  where  he  was 
last  seen  and  fished  his  body  out." 

The  killing  of  this  boy  was  not  even  investigated. 
The  writer  was  an  eye-witness  of  this  tragedy  and  as 
such  wrote  the  above  accurate  description  of  the  occur 
rence,  which  appears  in  his  story,  "The  Hindered 
Hand." 

FOR  STANDING  BY  HIS  SISTER. 

There  resided  near  Springfield,  Tennessee,  a  Negro 
widow,  who  was  the  mother  of  two  children,  a  boy 
and  a  girl. 

The  owner  of  the  farm  on  which  they  lived,  a 
white  man,  desired  to  pay  attention  to  the  girl,  but 
regarded  the  boy  as  being  in  his  way.  He  ordered  the 
boy  to  leave  the  farm,  which  the  boy  refused  to  do, 
knowing  the  man's  designs  toward  his  sister.  The 
white  man  and  the  Negro  youth  eventually  came  to 
blows  over  the  matter,  and  in  the  fight  the  white  man 
was  seriously  injured. 

The  Negro  was  arrested  and  carried  to  Springfield, 
ostensibly  for  safekeeping.  The  sheriff  who  had  the 
Negro  boy  in  charge  on  the  way  to  Springfield  got  into 
a  conversation  with  a  fellow-passenger.  He  asked  the 
passenger  to  come  back  from  Springfield  that  night, 
stating  that  they  were  going  to  have  some  fun  with 
this  Negro.  This  fellow-passenger,  as  it  happened,  had 
Negro  blood  in  his  veins,  though  traces  of  such  were 
not  discernible  to  the  eye.  He  was  riding  in  the  coach 
set  apart  for  whites  and  was  presumed  to  be  white. 

28 


Upon  arriving  in  Nashville  this  Negro  gathered  a 
delegation  of  the  more  prominent  Negroes  and  waited 
on  the  Governor,  citing  the  remarks  of  the  sheriff  and 
asking  his  intervention  to  save  the  life  of  the  prisoner. 
For  a  time  he  seemed  to  take  an  interest  in  the  case, 
until  a  chance  remark  let  him  know  that  the  white- 
looking  man  was  a  Negro.  Finding  that  his  delegation 
was  composed  of  Negroes  entirely,  he  stated  that  there 
was  nothing  that  he  could  do.  Being  urged  to  com 
municate  with  the  sheriff,  he  declined,  saying  he  could 
only  act  when  appealed  to  by  the  sheriffs  of  the  coun 
ties.  That  night  a  mob  took  the  Negro  youth  from  the 
jail,  hanged  him  to  a  tree  and  riddled  his  body  with 
bullets. 

PRISON  LIFE. 

Such  is  t'he  life  of  the  free  Negroes.  Perhaps 
something  should  be  said  concerning  those  who  are  not 
free — those  who  are  imprisoned  by  the  duly  constituted 
authorities — that  we  may  see  just  what  sort  of  a  prison 
system  a  repressionist  regime  evolves. 

The  writer  remembers  having  seen  a  man  who  had 
just  returned  from  the  county  farm  with  one  foot  eaten 
to  a  nub,  the  result  of  being  frost-bitten  through  ex 
posure  on  the  farm,  to  which  he  had  been  sent  for  a 
minor  offense.  He  also  recalls  having  seen  a  woman 
who  testified  that  she  had  been  made  to  lie  on  her 
stomach  and  receive  a  whipping  from  the  guard,  with 
her  clothes  thrown  over  her  head.  As  she  was  leaving 
the  room  the  man  who  had  whipped  her  knocked  her 
in  the  eye  with  his  elbow,  saying,  "Take  that,  you 
hussy."  As  a  result  of  that  blow  the  woman  was  blind 
in  that  eye  when  relating  her  treatment  to  the  writer. 
The  tales,  of  horror  coming  from  the  county  farm  equal 
those  coming  from  Russia's  Siberia. 

29 


A  Negro  lawyer  purchased  a  printing  press  and 
sold  it  before  he  had  finished  his  payments  on  it.  Other 
than  this  offense  his  record  seems  to  have  been  good. 
For  the  offense  cited  he  was  sent  to  the  State  peniten 
tiary.  He  states  that  during  his  incarceration,  covering 
a  period  of  twenty-three  months,  four  Negroes  were 
wantonly  murdered  by  prison  officials,  and  that  one  of 
this  number  was  killed  while  being  shot  at  as  a  target 
by  one  of  the  guards. 

We  confess  that  we  were  more  than  inclined  to 
discount  this  story,  but  when  we  recall  the  manner  in 
which  Tom  Ray  was  killed  by  a  policeman,  and  re 
member  that  a  street  car  conductor  swore  that  he  shot 
at  a  Negro  "just  to  see  him  run,"  which  conductor  was 
pardoned  by  the  Governor,  we  pause  and  ask  the  ques 
tion  :  Who  knows  but  that  this  Negro  lawyer  is  telling 
the  truth;  who  knows  what  abuses  have  grown  up  in 
the  prison  life  of  the  South  under  the  one-party  system 
of  government? 

This  lawyer  also  states  that  when  Negro  women 
are  whipped  they  have  on  but  one  garment,  which  is 
first  wet  that  it  may  cling  close  to  the  flesh'  while  the 
lash  is  being  applied. 

We  pass  these  statements  from  the  Negro  lawyer 
over  to  the  reader  for  whatever  they  are  worth.  This, 
however,  we  do  know  to  be  a  fact :  that  quite  recently 
the  Governor  had  under  consideration  charges  against 
an  official  connected  with  the  penitentiary  management 
of  so  revolting  a  nature  that  the  newspapers  declared 
them  to  be  unprintable.  The  answer  of  the  accused 
was  also  said  by  the  newspapers  to  be  virtually  an  ad 
mission  of  guilt. 

Such  is  the  state  of  affairs  begotten  in  and  about 
Nashville  by  the  policy  of  repression,  the  policy  of  the 

30 


controlling  influence  among  the  whites  to  establish  a 
gulf  between  the  Negroes  and  the  governing  force  hav 
ing  in  its  care  and  keeping  their  lives  and,  to  a  large 
extent,  the  destinies  of  themselves  and  their  children. 
It  is  by  no  means  here  contended  that  there  are  no 
good  white  people  in  the  city.  There  are  many  who, 
personally,  are  as  high-minded  and  humane  as  can  be 
found  anywhere.  Nor  do  we  seek  to  convey  the  im 
pression  that  Negroes  must  dodge  bullets  every  step 
they  take  as  they  walk  along  the  streets.  But  we  do 
most  emphatically  assert  that  the  general  feeling  of 
the  Negro  population  is  one  of  insecurity;  that  they 
regard  the  government  machinery  as  actively  hostile; 
that  they  feel  that  not  so  much  as  the  weight  of  a 
feather  can  be  laid  upon  any  white  man  of  murderous 
instincts  who  may  see  fit  to  claim  a  Negro  as  his  victim. 
In  marked  contrast  with  Prof.  Booker  T.  Washing 
ton's  quoted  opinion  as  to  the  feebleness  of  race  preju 
dice  in  this  city  is  the  following  comment  from  one  of 
Nashville's  leading  colored  citizens,  who  is  likewise  a 
special  friend  of  Mr.  Washington:  "The  phase  of  life 
(in  Nashville)  that  is  making  more  progress  and 
greater  strides  than  anything  else,  is  the  feeling  against 
the  Negro.  Conditions  are  fast  becoming  unbearable." 

A  ROLL-CALL. 

Nor  can  the  conditions  in  Nashville  be  dismissed 
with  the  assertion  that  they  are  abnormal. 

The  writer  has  for  years  been  in  touch  with  the 
Negroes  of  the  repressionist  region.  He  has  been  at 
pains,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  make  diligent 
inquiry  as  to  how  all  classes  of  Negroes  are  faring,  and 
the  story  has  ever  been  the  same,  namely,  that  wrong 
and  repression  are  twin  sisters  and  ever  go  hand-in- 
hand.  Wherever  the  Negro's  hands  have  been  tied  the 


baser  spirits  among  the  whites  have  regarded  them 
selves  as  licensed  to  kick  and  cuff  him. 

Choose  whatever  spot  you  will  where  repression 
reigns,  thrust  in  the  lance  and  you  will  find  oozing 
therefrom  helplessness  on  the  part  of  the  Negro  in  the 
face  of  aggression,  unrestrained  maltreatment  on  the 
part  of  the  mean  of  heart,  cruel  indifference,  paralyzing 
self-interest  and  sometimes  wanton  oppression  on  the 
part  of  the  chosen  governing  agencies — chosen  with  the 
distinct  understanding  that  the  Negroes,  having  no 
voice  in  their  making,  are  to  be  utterly  ignored  as  a 
factor  in  determining  their  policies. 

To  further  demonstrate  the  essential  character  of 
a  repressionist  regime,  we  shall  now  call  the  roll  of  a 
number  of  States  which  are  avowedly  repressionist 
and  cite  some  more  or  less  conspicuous  fruitage  of  the 
system. 

ALABAMA. — This  State  should  possess  a  peculiar 
interest  for  the  sociological  investigator,  for  the  reason 
that  it  has  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  been  the  home 
of  the  two  most  conspicuous  bearers  of  the  olive  branch 
that  the  Negro  race  has  produced  since  emancipation — 
Professors  Booker  T.  Washington  and  W.  H.  Council. 
The  philanthropy  of  the  nation  as  it  touches  the  Negro 
has  of  late  years  been  largely  concentrated  on  an  indus 
trial  institution  in  this  State.  Let  us  briefly  glance  at 
what  we  have  here. 

First,  the  type  of  leadership  for  the  Negro  that  the 
dominant  element  of  the  white  South  applauds. 

Second,  the  kind  of  education  favored  by  the  white 
South. 

Third,  the  nation,  by  means  of  Presidential  visits, 
mention  in  a  Presidential  message,  the  practically 
unanimous  voice  of  the  public  press,  the  inaction  of 

32 


Congress,  committing  itself  for  the  time  being  to  the 
plan  of  adjustment  advocated  by  the  type  of  leadership 
approved  by  the  white  South. 

To  illustrate  just  how  much  security  exists  even  in 
such  a  State,  we  will  simply  cite  a  few  incidents  con 
nected  with  the  town  of  Tuskegee.  During  the  recent 
Presidential  campaign  the  most  violent  of  all  the  utter 
ances  reported  throughout  the  nation  was  that  of  the 
successful  Democratic  candidate  for  Congress  from 
the  Congressional  District  in  which  Tuskegee  is  lo 
cated,  the  speaker  suggesting  that  a  bomb  blowing  up 
the  President  and  Mr.  Washington  would  be  engaged 
in  a  rather  good  work.  One  of  the  first  steps  taken  by 
this  Congressman  upon  entering  Congress  was  the  in 
troducing  of  a  bill  providing  for  "Jim  Crow"  street  cars 
for  the  District  of  Columbia. 

A  TUSKEGEE  PROFESSOR. 

One  day  one  of  the  instructors  of  Tuskegee  Insti 
tute,  in  company  with  his  wife,  drove  into  the  town  for 
the  purpose  of  making  some  purchases  at  the  grocery 
where  they  were  accustomed  to  trade.  The  proprietor, 
a  white  man,  on  all  former  occasions — the  instructor 
being  alone — had  invariably  addressed  him  as  professor. 
On  this  one  occasion,  the  instructor's  wife  being  pres 
ent,  the  proprietor  dropped  the  word  professor  and 
called  him  bluntly  by  his  given  name.  Stung  by  what 
he  regarded  as  undue  familiarity,  brought  on,  perhaps, 
by  the  presence  of  his  wife,  the  instructor  and  his  wife 
left  the  store  without  another  word  to  the  proprietor. 

Upon  reaching  his  home  the  instructor  wrote  a 
note  to  the  offending  groceryman,  expressing  in  a  polite 
manner  his  displeasure  at  the  latter's  calling  him  by  his 
given  name.  It  seems  that  the  letter,  before  reaching 
the  proprietor,  fell  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  clerks, 

33 


who  exhibited  it  to  such  white  men  as  came  into  the 
store.  The  conclusion  was  reached  by  those  who  read 
the  note  that  the  teacher  had  been  guilty  of  an  offense 
calling  for  summary  punishment,  so  a  mob  was  formed 
to  take  him  in  charge.  News  of  the  determination  to 
visit  violence  upon  the  instructor  reached  Mr.  Wash 
ington,  and  he  went  to  the  town  with  a  view  to  calming 
matters.  His  efforts,  however,  were  of  no  avail. 

During  the  night  a  guard  was  stationed  around  the 
instructor — Mr.  Washington  himself  doing  guard  duty. 
In  some  way  the  rumor  got  afloat  that  the  instructor 
had  left,  and  the  mob  dispersed.  It  was  suggested  to 
the  instructor  that  it  was  perhaps  better  for  him  to 
leave,  as  finding  him  still  there  after  the  impression 
had  gone  out  that  he  had  left  might  bring  about  a 
reaction  against  the  school  on  the  presumption  that  it 
was  a  party  to  the  deception.  He  was  kept  secreted 
upon  the  campus  until  ready  to  take  his  departure,  and 
under  cover  of  the  night  he  was  driven  across  country 
to  a  station  some  few  miles  away,  where  he  boarded 
the  train  and  came  to  Nashville,  Tennessee.  It  was 
from  the  lips  of  this  instructor  himself  that  the  writer 
got  the  account  as  here  related. 

The  instructor  spoke  feelingly  of  Mr.  Washington, 
stating  that  he  would  ever  remember  his  efforts  to 
save  his  life.  Mr.  Washington  was  powerless.  Ala 
bama  is  a  repressionist  State.  Negroes  have  no  voice 
in  making  and  unmaking  the  administrators  of  the  gov 
ernment.  They  may  plead  with  the  officials  to  perform 
their  sworn  duty,  but  there  looms  before  these  officials 
the  day  of  reckoning  at  the  ballot-box;  and,  in  their 
visions,  seeing  no  Negroes  present,  they  proceed  to  act 
or  fail  to  act  in  a  way  to  curry  favor  with  the  voters. 
How  powerless  is  a  voteless  element  even  when  but 
tressed  by  the  walls  of  a  Tuskegee ! 

34 


GEORGIA. — During  the  reconstruction  period  the 
better  class  of  southern  white  people  of  Georgia  acted 
somewhat  differently  to  those  in  other  States.  They 
co-operated  with  the  authorities  in  bringing  order  out 
of  chaos,  and  as  a  result  Georgia  escaped  the  bad  fea 
tures  of  the  reconstruction  period  complained  of  by 
those  States  in  which  the  repressionist  sentiment  was 
more  rampant.  For  years  Georgia  refused  to  counte 
nance  any  attempt  to  disfranchise  voters  in  any  manner 
repugnant  to  the  Federal  Constitution.  As  a  result  of 
this  comparatively  liberal  atmosphere,  Georgia  Negroes 
were  forging  to  the  front  and  were  everywhere  loud 
in  their  praise  of  their  State  whenever  it  was  thrown 
into  comparison  with  other  States.  It  was  contrib 
uting  its  quota  of  distinguished  Negroes  to  the  work 
of  the  uplift  of  the  race :  the  Rev.  J.  W.  E.  Bowen, 
seriously  considered  for  the  Bishopric  of  the  M.  E. 
Church;  the  learned  W.  H.  Crogman,  president  of 
Clark  University;  I.  Garland  Penn,  director  of  the 
Negro  Department  of  the  Atlanta  Exposition ;  Bishops 
Henry  M.  Turner  and  J.  W.  Gaines,  of  the  A.  M. 
E.  Church;  Judson  W.  Lyons,  ex-Register  of  the 
Treasury;  the  Rev.  C.  T.  Walker,  the  most  noted 
Negro  Baptist  preacher  of  his  day;  Professor  John 
Hope,  president  of  Atlanta  Baptist  College ;  Professor 
R.  R.  Wright,  Sr.,  ex-paymaster  in  the  army ;  Professor 
W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  the  spokesman  of  the  culture  of  his 
race. 

Here  emerges  the  Hon.  Hoke  Smith,  who  went 
into  retirement  with  the  receding  of  the  Cleveland 
wave  in  the  South,  and  who  now  feels  that  a  powerful 
agency  is  needed  to  restore  life  to  his  political  corpse. 
Theretofore  generally  regarded  as  a  friend  of  the 
Negro,  he  turns  demagogue,  and  preaches  everywhere 

35 


in  the  most  violent  language  the  doctrine  of  repression. 
And  then  comes  Atlanta's  bloody  orgy ! 

FLORIDA. — There  now  resides  in  the  city  of  New 
York  a  brilliant  young  Negro  lawyer,  formerly  a  mem 
ber  of  the  City  Council  of  Jacksonville,  Florida.  One 
day  as  we  sat  in  his  New  York  office  he  bowed  his  head 
on  his  desk  in  a  troubled  manner,  and  spoke  substan 
tially  as  follows : 

"What  are  we  going  to  do?  You  take  my 
State — Florida.  It  is  only  in  a  few  counties  of  that 
State  that  we  have  jury  trials.  Negroes  are  haled 
before  magistrates,  who  send  them  to  the  State 
prisons.  In  many  counties  there  are  no  opportuni 
ties  for  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  the  magis 
trates.  We  have  the  convict-lease  system  there, 
and  the  State  is  paid  a  certain  amount  for  each 
prisoner.  The  convicts  are  often  forced  to  work  in 
the  turpentine  swamps  in  water  up  to  their  necks. 
Often  the  poor  fellows  catch  the  malarial  fever  and 
become  so  sick  that  they  are  unfit  for  service.  As 
the  lessees  of  the  convicts  have  to  pay  the  State  for 
the  services  of  these  men  so  long  as  they  are  in 
their  charge  alive,  some  of  the  poor  fellows,  when 
seen  to  be  unfit  for  further  service,  are  beaten  to 
death  that  the  lessees  may  be  exempt  from  the 
further  support  of  the  sick.  I  have  asked  white  men 
who  know  of  the  abuses  of  the  system  to  attack  it 
in  the  State  Legislature,  but  they  have  told  me 
that  it  would  simply  mean  their  political  ruin,  with 
no  good  accomplished." 

The  following  account  of  conditions  in  the  prison 
life  of  Florida,  which  appears  in  the  book  entitled 
"Overshadowed,"  penned  by  the  writer,  is  drawn  from 
that  periodical  of  high  standing,  The  Missionary  Re 
view  of  the  World : 

"Negro  women  are  forced  to  labor  side  by  side 
with  men  hardened  in  crime.  With  these  same 
hardened  criminals  the  small  boys  and  girls,  pres- 

36 


ent  in  the  convict  camp  for  their  first  offenses,  had 
to  labor.  The  Negro  women  were  sometimes  the 
victims  of  outrages  committed  by  their  white 
bosses.  Illegitimate  offspring  born  in  prison  were 
taken  possession  of  and  doomed  to  perpetual 
slavery. 

Men,  women  and  children  slept  together  like  a 
herd  of  cattle,  as  many  as  sixty  being  crowded 
into  a  room  eighteen  feet  square  with  a  ceiling 
seven  feet  high,  there  being  no  ventilation  what 
ever.  After  a  hard  day's  work  the  convicts  had  to 
cook  their  own  food — fat  bacon  and  corn  bread — 
on  small  fires  made  on  the  ground.  A  downpour 
of  rain  would  not  induce  the  bosses  to  allow  the 
convicts  to  quit  work  and  seek  shelter.  Slight 
offenses  were  punished  by  brutal  whippings,  and 
one  aged  Negro,  in  the  prison  for  stealing  food  for 
a  starving  family,  was  beaten  until  he  died ;  beaten 
because  he  expressed  an  opinion  as  to  the  decency 
of  the  conduct  of  one  white  boss  toward  a  Negro 
woman,  his  niece,  in  the  penitentiary  as  accessory 
to  his  crime. 

Whenever  showers  of  rain  drenched  the  entire 
lot  of  convicts  they  did  not  have  changing  gar 
ments,  but  had  to  wear  and  even  sleep  in  their  wet 
clothing  until  they  dried  upon  them.  When  the 
few  small  houses  were  filled  to  their  utmost  capaci 
ties  a  tent  was  spread,  and  all  fresh  comers  were 
assigned  to  sleep  beneath  this  on  the  bare  ground. 
If  some  convict  more  adroit  than  his  fellows  made 
his  escape,  the  bloodhounds  would  soon  be  on  his 
trail  and  ere  long  would  have  their  fangs  buried 
in  his  quivering  flesh. 

Filth  abounded  on  every  hand,  vermin  covered 
everything  in  the  convict  quarters,  and  sanitation 
was  a  thing  unheard  of.  Disease  walked  boldly 
into  their  midst  and  bade  death  mow  down  with 
his  scythe  twenty  out  of  each  hundred,  this  being 
the  proportion  of  those  who  died." 

MISSISSIPPI.— The  Hon.  James  K.  Vardaman! 

37 


NORTH  CAROLINA.— The  Rev.  Thomas  Dix- 
on,  Jr. ! 

SOUTH  CAROLINA.— The  Hon.  Benjamin  F. 
Tillman ! 

TENNESSEE.— The  defiance  on  the  part  of  a  mob 
of  an  order  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
an  occurrence  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the 
nation. 

VIRGINIA. — Virginia,  since  the  days  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  has  had  a  large  number  of  influential  white 
people  in  love  with  the  doctrine  of  human  rights. 
Slavery  was  all  but  abolished  by  the  State  Legislature 
in  Jefferson's  day.  The  institution  was  milder  there 
than  in  other  portions  of  the  South.  Virginia  was  the 
last  State  to  join  the  seceders  from  the  Union,  and  also 
the  last  to  pass  laws  discriminating  against  Negro  vot 
ers.  Thanks  to  the  hitherto  favorable  atmosphere,  the 
Virginia  Negroes  have  made  marvelous  progress.  In 
Richmond  there  are  more  Negro  merchants  doing  suc 
cessful  business  than  in  any  other  city  in  the  country. 
When  a  State  law  was  passed  some  time  since  requir 
ing  all  insurance  companies  to  make  deposits  of  $10,000 
each,  five  Negro  companies  were  strong  enough  to 
make  the  deposit.  The  most  successful  co-operative 
effort  of  the  race — The  True  Reformers'  organization 
— operates  from  the  city  of  Richmond.  There  are  five 
successful  Negro  banks  operating  there  and  four 
weekly  newspapers  greet  their  readers  each  week.  In 
spite  of  the  splendid  showing  being  made  by  the 
Negroes,  repression  came.  But  the  repressionists  were 
not  sure  of  the  State,  and  so,  when  the  repressionist 
Constitutional  Convention  was  through  with  its  work, 
it  dared  not  submit  it  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  adopting 
the  expedient  of  proclaiming  it.  Now  that  repression 
has  been  resorted  to,  the  relations  between  the  races 
are  growing  more  strained  and  the  conditions  are  get 
ting  worse.  A  recent  visit  of  the  writer  to  that  State 
convinced  him  that  the  evils  that  follow  in  the  wake 
of  repression  are  heading  Virginia-ward. 

And  thus  the  story  runs. 

38 


Part  II    The  Case  Argued. 


TO  BE  EXPECTED. 

But  in  all  candor,  does  not  the  experience  of  his 
tory  warn  us  to  expect  a  harvest  of  evil  under  any 
system  of  government  in  which  one  set  of  men  exer 
cises  arbitrary  control  over  another? 

Every  drop  of  blood  spilled  in  the  French  Revolu 
tion,  every  minie  ball  that  whistled  its  way  to  the 
breast  of  the  opposing  soldier  in  the  war  between  the 
American  colonies  and  the  mother  country,  is  an  argu 
ment  against  the  subjection  of  one  class  of  men  to 
another.  The  masses  of  Europe  and  the  American  Col 
onists  could  not  endure  their  political  submergence 
even  when  their  rulers  were  tied  to  them  by  ties  of 
race.  They  attested  with  their  blood  their  unalterable 
conviction  that  their  best  interests  demanded  that  they 
have  a  voice  in  the  choice  of  the  pilots  that  were  to 
guide  the  ship  of  state. 

If  members  of  a  common  household  racially  found 
themselves  unable  to  trust  their  destinies  to  the  simple 
goodness  of  heart  of  their  rulers,  and  felt  that  they 
must  unyieldingly  insist  that  the  rulers  be  responsible 
to  the  ruled,  how  much  less  is  it  to  be  expected  that 
officials  separated  by  social  and  racial  ties  from  a  large 
part  of  their  constituency  will  have  due  regard  for  the 
separated  ones  if  the  separated  ones  have  no  means  of 
rewarding  faithfulness,  rebuking  neglect  and  over 
throwing  a  regime  when  it  becomes  guilty  of  oppres 
sion. 

39 


Nature  has  planted  in  man  the  spirit  of  self-inter 
est  that  he  may  have  the  inclination  to  expend  the 
energy  to  propel  himself  through  life.  She  has  also 
planted  in  the  other  man  the  desire,  and  has  equipped 
him  more  or  less  with  the  ability,  to  defend  himself. 
While  the  hand  is  made  so  it  can  open  and  grasp,  it  is 
also  so  constructed  that  it  can  double  and  strike.  The 
fatal,  the  absolutely  incurable,  defect  in  the  system  of 
repression  is  that  it  gives  full  sway  to  the  instinct  of 
self-interest  on  the  one  hand  and  on  the  other  denies 
all  facilities  for  resisting  encroachments. 

Let  the  spirit  of  self-interest  found  in  human 
nature  continue  in  full  force  and  withdraw  all  power 
of  self-defense  and  there  will  as  certainly  be  encroach 
ments  as  that  a  rock  hurled  over  a  precipice  will  de 
scend  to  the  bottom  of  the  gorge. 

THE  LARGER  RESULTS. 

Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  larger  results  that 
flow  from  the  conditions  begotten  by  a  system  of  re 
pression. 

The  failure  of  the  Courts  to  administer  justice,  the 
unfeeling  and  often  cruel  handling  of  criminals,  the  bar 
barous  excesses  of  mobs  which  show  that  their  hostil 
ity  is  directed  not  only  against  the  victim's  crime,  but 
his  color  as  well — these  things  ripen  the  hearts  of  men 
for  evil  and  thus  multiply  criminals.  When  the  prison 
door  opens  and  the  wronged  and  brutalized  felon  steps 
forth,  he  is  more  an  enemy  to  society  than  ever,  and  it 
is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  this  State-made  beast 
does  beastly  deeds  that  excite  the  horror  of  the  entire 
social  body.  When  the  public  turns  out  to  dance 
around  the  victim  as  he  writhes  in  the  flames,  and  to 
fight  for  his  ashes  as  souvenirs  of  the  event,  how  little 
does  it  dream  that  a  careful  sociological  investigation 

40 


would  more  than  likely  trace  the  parentage  of  this  de 
generate  to  the  social  order,  and  could  point  to  a  huge 
nest  on  which  the  social  order  sits  in  unreasoning 
mood,  hatching  out  others  and  yet  others. 

The  North  and  the  West  are  at  present  projected 
upon  a  higher  economic  scale  than  the  South.  This  fact 
is  fast  percolating  the  South,  and  there  is  a  decided 
drift  of  the  Negro  population  away  from  portions  of 
the  South.  Among  those  who  come  are  to  be  found 
this  criminal  class  nurtured  in  a  debasing  environment 
and  made  ready  for  the  slum  life  of  northern  cities. 
This  criminal  element  coming  to  the  North  has  its 
effect  in  reducing  the  general  average  of  the  northern 
Negro  and  in  altering  materially  the  good  opinion 
hitherto  entertained  for  the  race. 

In  the  course  of  an  article  touching  the  coming  of 
Negroes  to  the  North,  the  New  York  Press  asserted 
that  the  West  Indian  Negroes  were  winning  marked 
favor  as  compared  with  the  Negroes  from  the  South,  so 
much  so  that  persons  advertising  for  colored  servants 
usually  added  "West  Indians  preferred."  The  Nash 
ville  American,  in  the  course  of  its  comment  on  the 
Press  editorial,  remarked : 

"There  is  some  satisfaction  in  hearing  such 
complaints  from  the  North,  from  whence  have 
come,  for  forty  years,  ignorant  criticism  of  south 
ern  whites  and  impertinent  advice  as  to  how  they 
should  treat  the  Negro." 

The  writer  has  taken  pains  to  sound  such  West 
Indians  as  he  has  met  with  regard  to  the  treatment 
received  at  the  hands  of  their  government.  Without 
exception  the  praise  of  their  government  has  been  un 
qualified.  How  different  has  been  the  note  of  the 
Negro  from  the  South !  If,  with  the  Nashville  Ameri 
can,  the  South  should  gloat  over  the  fact  that  it  is 

4* 


pouring  a  less  acceptable  and  more  vicious  type  of 
Negro  into  the  North  than  the  West  Indies,  it  but 
glories  in  its  own  shame. 

In  this  connection  it  is  pertinent  to  quote  the  re 
marks  of  Prof.  Collins,  Bishop  of  Gibraltar,  who,  after 
a  visit  to  Jamaica,  wrote  as  follows  concerning  the  re 
lations  of  the  race  in  that  island : 

"As  regards  political  privileges  in  this  island, 
the  colored  and  black  man  stand  on  the  same  plat 
form  as  the  white.     *     *     *" 
Again : 

"Inter-racial  feeling  is  scarcely  perceptible ;  all 
classes  live  together  harmoniously;  there  are  few 
instances  of  revolting  against  legally  constituted 
authority ;  justice  is  meted  out  evenhandedly  to  the 
black  as  to  the  white.  The  fact  is  significant  to  one 
who  has  studied  the  complexities  of  the  Negro 
question  in  America,  that  in  this  island  there  is  not 
on  record  a  case  where  a  white  woman  has  been 
molested.  Visitors  can  roam  at  will  all  over  the 
colony  without  losing  the  feeling  of  perfect  se 
curity." 

THE  ASPIRING  NEGRO. 

The  conditions  in  the  South  are  not  without  their 
effects  upon  the  better  and  more  prosperous  element 
of  Negroes.  The  Negro  is  beyond  all  doubt  and  of  ne 
cessity  a  student  of  American  civilization.  Upon  the 
more  thoughtful  element  of  the  race  there  has  dawned 
a  full  conception  of  the  meaning  of  liberty,  of  freedom, 
of  equality.  An  ineradicable  passion  exists  within  the 
bosom  of  the  Negro  to  stand  before  the  law  the  undis 
puted  peer  of  his  fellows.  Any  denial  of  this  right  is 
calculated  to  breed  soreness,  discontent,  brooding  and 
scheming  in  his  heart.  This  restlessness  is  not  suscep 
tible  of  being  allayed,  so  a  solution  of  the  problem  can- 

42 


not  be  looked  for  along  this  line,  for  be  it  remembered 
that  the  stream  of  literature  necessary  to  hold  the  great 
millions  of  America  true  to  the  ideals  of  the  fathers 
would  of  itself  keep  the  fires  alive  in  the  Negro  bosom 
were  he  otherwise  disposed  to  go  to  sleep.  The  im 
pregnating  air  of  America  will  be  sure  to  do  its  work. 
Right  clearly  did  the  slave  owner  perceive  that  it  was 
necessary  to  keep  the  Negro  in  ignorance  if  he  was  to 
be  easily  kept  in  slavery. 

Granted,  then,  this  perpetual  discontent  attendant 
upon  a  policy  of  repression,  let  us  trace  its  influence. 
It  calls  to  the  frontier,  to  deal  with  external  complica 
tions,  soul  forces  that  would  under  normal  conditions 
be  directed  toward  internal  improvement.  The  work  of 
uplift  is  going  on,  it  is  true,  but  by  no  means  at  the  rate 
that  it  could  advance  if  the  soul  forces  of  the  race 
were  relieved  from  frontier  duty,  from  a  weary  dis 
tracted  vigil  of  the  ever-present  menace. 

If  ever  a  people  stood  in  need  of  internal  work,  it 
is  the  Negro  race.  It  has  just  emerged  from  slavery, 
which  was  itself  entered  from  barbarism.  It  is  turned 
loose  in  all  this  maze  of  American  civilization  to  find  its 
way.  It  stands  with  the  censorious  eyes  of  the  world 
upon  it.  Indeed,  every  available  influence  is  needed  in 
the  internal  work.  At  this  needy,  this  crucial  hour,  the 
strength  of  the  race  is  divided,  its  genius  is  summoned 
to  deal  with  the  external.  The  sermons  from  the  pul 
pit  become  sociological  discourses,  the  churches  them 
selves  become,  as  Mr.  DuBois  puts  it,  socio-religious 
institutions ;  ministerial  meetings  and  conferences  often 
allow  civic  questions  to  monopolize  their  time.  Thus 
forces  that  under  normal  conditions  would  be  directed 
toward  the  spiritual  uplift  of  the  race  are  diverted  in 
the  direction  indicated. 

43 


BROAD  ROAD  TO  DEPTHS  BUT  NOT  TO 
HEIGHTS. 

There  are  arguments  embedded  in  the  very  fact  of 
communal  life  itself  that  testify  to  the  danger  of  repres 
sion.  Communal  life  has  within  itself  doubly  quicken 
ing  power  for  both  good  and  evil.  If  from  our  cities 
have  sprung  the  marvels  of  civilization,  it  must  also  be 
remembered  that  in  the  cities  have  developed  forms  of 
vice  of  a  depth  and  ingenuity  unparalleled.  No  com 
munity  can  strike  a  proper  balance  between  good  and 
evil  where  the  communal  influence  for  evil  is  allowed  to 
be  exploited  to  its  full  extent,  while  the  influence  for 
stimulation  to  good  is  restrained. 

The  added  temptations  and  opportunities  that 
come  as  a  result  of  man's  gregariousness  are  counter 
balanced  in  the  normal  civilized  community  by  the  re 
wards  of  various  kinds  that  the  group  life  offers  those 
who  serve  it,  rewards  such  as  offices  of  emolument, 
posts  of  honor,  mention  in  history  and  so  forth. 

*"A11  history  shows  that  a  race  stands  in  need  of 
great  men,  in  need  of  the  contribution  of  their  superior 
powers,  and  the  inspiration  that  their  names  will  carry 
from  generation  to  generation. 

Grappling  with  the  affairs  of  state  affords  unique 
opportunities  for  growth,  while  the  honor  of  having 
served  the  state  operates  as  a  magnifying  glass  enlarg 
ing  the  inspirational  force  of  individuals  so  honored. 
Thus  a  race  having  the  privilege  of  committing  great 
trusts  to  its  members  draws  as  a  dividend  men  of  en 
larged  powers  and  names  which  will  inspire.  These 
influences,  reapplied  to  the  needs  of  the  state,  serve 
mightily  to  pull  the  people  forward." 

*  The  Hindered  Hand. 

44 


To  all  these  rewards  from  organized  society  the 
Negro  is  almost  a  total  stranger.  Barring  the  fact  that 
Negroes  are  employed  by  the  State  to  teach  Negroes  in 
the  public  schools,  practically  the  only  badges  of  dis 
tinction  offered  the  Negroes  of  their  several  States  are 
the  picks  around  their  ankles  when  in  the  chain  gangs 
and  striped  suits  when  in  the  State  prison. 

In  the  penitentiary  of  Tennessee  a  system  of  re 
wards  was  somewhat  recently  instituted,  and  the  pris 
oners  that  behaved  better  than  the  others  were  to  be 
given  a  slightly  different  order  of  clothing.  If  in  all  the 
borders  of  Tennessee  the  State  makes  any  other  effort 
to  appeal  to  the  element  of  hope  for  promotion  to  be 
found  in  the  bosom  of  Negroes,  in  common  with  all 
other  men,  it  has  escaped  the  writer's  notice.  It  was 
evidently  the  original  intention  of  our  present  President 
to  place  a  Negro  in  some  conspicuous  office  in  every 
southern  State  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  rainbow  of  promise 
to  his  race,  to  the  end  that  all  might  be  inspired. 
But  the  repressionist  South  would  not  have  it  so. 
With  the  Negroes  caught  in  the  inevitable  swirl  of 
communal  life  and  denied  the  sustaining  influences 
that  help  others  to  put  evil  behind  them,  it  ought  not 
to  occassion  surprise  if  degeneracy  here  and  there 
appears. 

THE  WHITE  SOUTH  AFFECTED. 

But  the  evils  of  the  system  of  repression  are  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  ranks  of  the  Negroes.  In  many 
ways,  the  white  people  of  the  country  are  gravely 
affected.  The  Negro  exodus  from  the  South  and  from 
the  rural  districts  of  that  section  to  the  cities  thereof 
has  come  at  a  time  when  that  section  is  all  the  more  in 
need  of  helpers  for  the  prosperous  times  that  are  upon 
it.  Lacking  such  immigration  as  has  enabled  the  North 

45 


to  take  care  of  its  booms,  the  South  is  clutching  desper 
ately  after  its  Negro  population  which  is  inadequate  for 
its  demands.  Hence  the  cry  for  vagrancy  laws  and  the 
resort  to  peonage  camps.  The  widespread  lack  of  labor, 
due  to  the  restlessness  of  the  Negro  and  the  boom  con 
ditions  in  the  South,  is  the  economic  factor  that  is  back 
of  the  present  acute  situation  in  the  South.  The  well- 
to-do  among  the  whites  are  more  or  less  vexed  because 
of  their  inability  to  get  the  labor  to  develop  their 
resources.  Fertile  fields  untilled,  bounteous  harvests 
ungathered,  possibilities  of  wealth  abounding  on  every 
hand  unexploited,  are  the  factors  that  are  contriving  to 
make  the  South  the  modern  Tantalus. 

DESTROYING  THE  SENTIMENT  OF  JUSTICE. 

But  the  effects  of  the  treatment  of  the  submerged 
element  are  by  no  means  confined  to  the  material  things 
of  the  South.  They  have  their  reflex  influence  upon  the 
very  heart  and  core  of  southern  life  in  its  entirety.  The 
lifting  of  the  bandages  from  the  eyes  of  justice  so  that 
she  may  see  the  color  of  the  prisoner  at  the  bar,  and  her 
immoral  handling  of  the  scales  when  the  prisoner  is  a 
Negro,  has  had  a  tendency  to  pervert  her  sensitive  soul 
so  that  she  has  lost  the  art  of  dispensing  evenhanded 
justice  as  between  white  people.  Taught  to  regard  the 
taking  of  human  life  as  a  slight  affair  when  the  life  of  a 
Negro  was  involved,  the  result  has  been  the  cheapen 
ing  of  the  estimate  of  all  human  life,  until  the  man 
with  a  smoking  pistol  with  a  dead  victim  before  him  has 
practically  become  the  hero  of  the  hour.  Says  the 
Charleston  (S.  C.)  News  and  Courier: 

"In  South  Carolina,  as  we  have  noted,  the 
safest  crime  is  the  crime  of  taking  human  life.  The 
conditions  are  the  same  in  almost  every  southern 
State.  Murder  and  violence  are  the  distinguishing 

4<5 


marks  of  our  present-day  civilization.  We  do  not 
enforce  the  law.  We  say  by  statute  that  murder 
must  be  punished  by  death,  and  murder  is  rarely 
punished  by  death,  or  rarely  punished  in  any  other 
way  in  this  State,  and  in  any  of  the  southern 
States,  except  where  the  murderer  is  colored,  or  is 
poor  and  without  influence.  Now  this  state  of 
affairs  cannot  last  forever.  We  have  grown  so  ac 
customed  to  the  failure  of  justice  in  cases  where 
human  life  is  taken  by  violence  that  we  excuse  one 
failure  and  another  until  it  will  become  a  habit  and 
the  strong  shall  prevail  over  the  weak,  and  the 
man  who  slays  his  brother  shall  be  regarded  as  the 
incarnation  of  power." 

There  must  be  no  one  element  in  the  human  family 
on  which  the  murderous  instinct  is  allowed  to  grow  fat, 
if  the  entire  body  would  not  be  gravely  affected. 

When  justice  dies,  well  may  civilization  mourn 
and  the  graveyard  of  buried  barbarism  take  on  a  happy 
smile  and  prepare  for  a  resurrection. 

LEADERSHIP  OF  THE  WHITE  SOUTH. 
The  very  question  of  the  leadership  of  the  South 
is  bound  up  in  this  matter.  The  cultivation  of  the 
spirit  of  repression,  an  overshadowing  passion,  makes 
it  soon  the  measuring  stick  for  statesmen.  Thus  the 
rule  of  all  enlightened  government  is  reversed.  Instead 
of  looking  for  a  leader  upon  the  mountain  top  of  good 
will,  he  will  be  sought  for  and  procured  in  the  slimy 
dungeon  of  hate. 

*  "With  repression  the  order  of  the  day,  and 
the  process  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  operating 
along  this  plane,  that  man  who  best  exemplifies  the 
repressive  faculty  will  survive  in  the  political  war 
fare,  and  thus  will  be  brought  to  the  front  the  ele 
ment  out  of  touch  with  the  broadening  influences 
of  the  age,  whose  vision  is  yet  bounded  by  the  nar 
row  horizon  of  race." 


*:.   *  The  Hindered  Hand. 

47 


With  each  repressionist  community  choosing  its 
most  narrow  spirit,  its  best  hater  of  the  Negro,  as  a 
leader ;  with  these  best  haters  choosing  the  best  of  the 
best  as  their  leader,  it  can  readily  be  seen  what  the 
pinnacle  of  repressionist  leadership  must  of  neces 
sity  be. 

*  "The  administration  of  the  government,  then, 
inevitably  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  less  refined, 
and  a  contemned  race  of  an  alien  blood  is  handed 
over  to  them  to  be  governed  absolutely.  As  might 
be  expected  under  a  system  that  picks  its  rougher 
spirits  for  rulership,  the  governing  force  is  often 
worse  in  its  attitude  toward  Negroes  than  are  the 
great  body  of  the  whites.  Instead,  therefore,  of  the 
government  being  the  guide,  piloting  the  people 
to  broader  conceptions,  the  governing  power  often 
sets  in  motion  brutalizing  tendencies  that  eventu 
ally  sweep  down  and  affect  the  people. 

"Local  sentiment  has  been  invoked  to  hold  in 
check  the  wrathful  outpourings  of  United  States 
Senators,  Legislatures  have  held  in  check  rampant 
Governors,  and  cities  have  cried  out  against  the 
acts  of  Legislatures  imposing  repressive  measures 
not  warranted  by  local  conditions — things  that 
signify  that  repression  sends  to  the  front  men 
whose  tendency  is  to  lower  rather  than  advance 
civilization." 

The  presidential  campaign  of  1904  was  conducted 
in  the  State  of  Tennessee  with  Negro  repression  as  the 
dominant  note. 

The  following  comments  from  Democratic  news 
papers  concerning  Democratic  legislators  chosen  dur 
ing  this  campaign  speak  for  themselves : 

"There  were  many  men  in  the  last  Legislature 
upon  whose  faces  the  mark  of  incompetency  or 
worse  was  as  plain  as  the  noonday  sun." — The 
Nashville  American. 


*  The  Hindered  Hand. 

48 


"It  would  be  better  for  Tennessee  to  groan 
on  under  present  laws  and  let  the  Legislature 
meet  no  more  in  ten  years  if  it  were  possible  under 
the  Constitution." — Lebanon  Banner. 

"Mediocrity  was  in  the  saddle,  and  picayunish 
partisan  politics  held  the  center  of  the  boards." — 
Franklin  Review-Appeal. 

"The  Legislature  has  adjourned.  Many  praises 
unto  the  'Great  I  Am/" — Murfreesboro  News- 
Banner. 

"Throwing  bricks  at  the  Legislature  is  a  favor 
ite  pastime,  but  really  a  brick  is  hardly  big  enough 
for  the  purpose." — Franklin  County  Truth. 

"In  our  opinion  the  present  Legislature  will  go 
down  in  history  as  the  most  incompetent  body  of 
lawmakers  that  ever  sat  in  the  capitol  of  Ten 
nessee." — Tullahoma  Guardian. 

"The  Tennessee  Legislature  has  adjourned 
and  perhaps  done  less  to  commend  itself  than  any 
of  its  predecessors." — Obion  Democrat. 

"The  people  elect  the  legislators  and  the 
people  are  responsible  for  the  character  of  men 
they  elect  and  send  to  Nashville  to  make  and  un 
make  laws.  We  know  the  Legislature  was  bad, 
even  miserable,  but  the  members  got  their  com 
mission  from  the  people." — Gallatin  News. 

"The  weekly  press  of  the  State  is  almost 
unanimous  in  its  condemnation  of  the  late  Legis 
lature.  *  *  *  As  we  have  said  before,  the  gen 
eral  littleness  of  the  body,  its  petty  conduct  in 
many  instances,  its  trades  and  combinations,  the 
autocratic  methods  of  self-seeking  members,  the 
quarrels,  the  cheap  declamations  and  intemperate 
and  undignified  and  unwarrantable  public  denunci 
ations  by  members  who  should  have  shown  a  bet 
ter  sense  of  dignity  and  decency,  the  dishonesty  in 
juggling  with  bills,  the  unreliability  of  promises — 
the  general  record  and  conduct  of  the  body  marked 
it  as  unworthy  of  the  State  or  the  approval  of  the 
people.  What  man  of  established  reputation  would 
care  to  be  known  as  a  member  of  such  a  Legisla- 

49 


ture  as  the  one  recently  adjourned?"— The  Nash 
ville  American. 

As  has  been  noted  elsewhere,  the  repressionist 
leader,  evolved  by  the  repressionist  system  of  South 
Carolina,  is  the  Hon.  Benjamin  F.  Tillman.  As  to  how, 
in  one  particular  at  least,  this  leadership  has  affected 
the  life  of  the  people  of  that  State  apart  from  the  race 
question,  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  comment 
in  the  Charleston  News  and  Courier  concerning  the 
passing  of  the  State  Dispensary,  an  institution  which 
Mr.  Tillman's  influence  had  imposed  upon  the  State : 

"The  State  Dispensary,  with  all  its  corruption 
and  knavery  and  outlawry,  and  its  brutal  domi 
nation  of  the  political  affairs  of  the  State,  will  no 
longer  menace  the  public  peace.  For  thirteen 
years  it  has  been  the  controlling  influence  in  South 
Carolina,  and  brought  only  shame  and  disgrace  to 
the  State.  Its  course  from  beginning  to  end  has 
been  stained  with  blood.  Corruption  has  stalked 
in  its  shadow;  fortunes  have  been  made  in  its 
credit;  reputations  have  been  destroyed  in  its 
service;  education  has  been  dishonored  by  its 
tainted  revenues ;  the  people  of  self-respecting  com 
munities  have  been  denied  the  right  of  local  self- 
government  because  they  would  not  touch  the  un 
clean  thing ;  courts  have  been  overthrown  in  order 
that  the  constitutionality  of  the  institution  might 
be  established,  and  small  men  have  been  elevated 
to  places  of  distinction  in  the  public  service  be 
cause  of  their  'loyalty'  to  the  whisky  machine.  At 
last  the  people  of  the  State  realized  the  character 
of  the  business  and  rendered  their  verdict  against 
it.  Not  even  the  wonderful  hold  of  Senator  Till 
man  upon  the  confidence  of  the  people  could  save 
his  pet  scheme  from  destruction,  and  in  its  failure 
he  is  condemned.  There  is  no  way  by  which  the 
dead  who  were  sacrificed  to  the  dispensary  can  be 
brought  back  to  life,  no  restitution  that  can  be 
made  for  the  outrages  committed  upon  the  rights 

50 


of  citizens,  no  legislation  that  will  restore  the  repu 
tations  that  have  been  lost  in  the  State  whisky 
business ;  the  written  record  will  remain." 

A  leadership  conceived  in  the  womb  of  race  hatred 
cannot  be  limited  in  its  activities  to  the  one  question 
that  gave  it  birth,  and,  running  amuck,  is  liable  to  in 
jure  in  matters  far  removed  from  the  one  issue. 

CHEAPENED  POLITICAL  LIFE. 

To  one  who  has  the  welfare  of  the  white  South 
genuinely  at  heart,  it  is  sickening  to  note  how  repres 
sion  immeasurably  cheapens  the  whole  political  life  of 
that  section,  denies  to  the  masses  the  real  food  for 
thought  given  elsewhere  during  canvasses. 

To  visit  the  North  and  West  in  the  time  of  the 
tremendous  intellectual  ferment  incident  to  a  heated 
campaign,  and  then  drift  southward  to  witness  the 
petty  personal  issues  upon  which  campaigns  are  so 
often  waged,  brings  a  feeling  of  pity  for  the  South.  In 
the  city  of  Nashville  the  writer  has  known  the  time 
when  such  pleas  as  the  following  were  made  by  candi 
dates  for  office :  "I  am  a  lame  man ;"  "I  was  the  first  to 
introduce  the  Jim-Crow  Car  Bill ;"  "I  want  the  office  be 
cause  I  need  the  money."  A  candidate  for  re-election  to 
the  Governorship  of  the  State,  whose  earlier  public 
record  had  been  attacked,  closed  an  ardent  appeal  to 
the  voters  to  return  him  to  the  office  that  he  might 
stand  vindicated  in  the  eyes  of  his  wife  and  children. 

MUST  FIND  FAULT. 

Again  the  moral  sense  of  the  world  is  and  will 
continue  to  be  opposed  to  the  holding  of  a  people  back 
because  of  their  color  or  race.  Any  section  of  the 
world  that  practices  this  will  find  itself  out  of  tune  with 
the  enlightened  sections  of  the  human  family. 


In  an  effort  to  establish  a  comity  between  itself 
and  the  outer  world,  a  repressionist  section  will  seek  to 
show  just  cause  for  its  action.  Where  the  simple  argu 
ment  of  color  fails  to  justify,  other  means  will  be 
sought.  This  puts  a  repressionist  people  on  a  search 
for  defects.  Pitiable  indeed  is  that  section  that  grows 
to  believe  that  its  esteem  in  the  world  will  depend  upon 
the  amount  of  carrion  it  finds  in  its  neighbor's  back 
yard.  The  suppression  of  the  good,  the  magnifying  of 
the  evil,  the  ready  coining  of  vague  suspicion  into  fact, 
are  the  inevitable  consequences  of  such  a  policy. 

The  committee  appointed  by  the  business  interests 
of  Atlanta  to  investigate  the  Atlanta  riot  gave  voice  to 
the  following  sentiment:  "If  half  the  publicity  were 
given  to  those  (Negroes)  who  are  trying  to  do  right 
that  is  given  to  the  crimes  of  the  few,  our  people  and 
the  world  would  view  them  in  a  different  light."  But 
the  course  complained  of  is  an  integral  part  of  a  system 
of  repression. 

The  better  element  of  the  white  South  spews  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  and  his  grossly  misleading 
productions,  out  of  its  mouth,  but  his  adroit  groupings 
of  half-truths  which  make  abominable  untruths  are  but 
the  legitimate  fruit  of  a  system  of  repression,  a  system 
repugnant  to  the  moral  sense  of  civilization.  It  is  a 
case  of  a  father  committing  a  crime,  a  son  committing 
perjury  to  shield  the  father  and  the  father  chastising 
the  boy  for  his  sin. 

THE  NATION. 

Nor  can  the  rest  of  the  nation  escape  the  blight 
of  repression.  The  money  of  the  North  is  finding  its 
way  to  the  South  in  constantly  increasing  quantities. 
In  the  upheavals  and  the  disorganization  inevitably 
attendant  upon  the  slow  strangling  of  a  voiceless 

52 


people,  hoarded  wealth  will  vanish  as  if  into  a  bottom 
less  sea.  The  wealth  of  the  North  should  learn  from 
Atlanta  that  no  money  is  safely  invested  where  repres 
sion  and  all  its  train  of  attendant  evils  abide  or  are 
due  at  any  moment. 

But  the  damage  to  the  rest  of  the  nation  is  spiritual 
as  well  as  material. 

The  North,  having  fought  out  within  its  borders 
many  of  mankind's  gravest  problems,  having  deter 
mined  upon  the  quest  of  right,  it  matters  not  in  what 
nooks  and  corners  the  customs  of  the  ages  have  seques 
tered  it,  most  worthily  covets  the  honor  of  a  seat  at  the 
council  table  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  World, 
But  how  can  Columbia  flay  the  Russian  murderer  of  the 
Jew  and  ignore  the  squirming  victim  of  repression  in 
the  South  and  yet  feel  in  her  heart  that  she  is  all  that 
she  ought  to  be? 

On  the  one  hand  her  consciousness  of  an  awful 
wrong  at  home  will  make  her  timid,  while  on  the 
other,  if  duly  outspoken,  she  will  have  her  prestige  im 
paired  by  having  attention  called  to  the  glass  house  in 
which  she  abides.  Thus  is  she  halted  in  her  world 
duties.  Have  not  the  oppressed  of  all  the  earth  an 
equity  in  our  republic ;  and  do  we  not  owe  to  the  sub 
merged  everywhere  at  least  an  untarnished  name?  But 
this  tarnished  name  is  the  inevitable  fruitage  of  the 
system  of  repression. 

Again,  let  it  be  branded  upon  the  mind  of  this 
nation  that  ours  is  a  democratic  form  of  government; 
that  all  elements  of  the  voting  population  contrib 
ute  their  quota  of  strength  to  the  governing  force; 
that  whatever  leadership  is  tossed  up  by  the  system 
of  repression  must  be  accepted  by  the  nation;  that 
this  repressionist  output,  representing  not  the  ad- 

53 


vancement  of  the  people,  but  the  left-over  relics  of  the 
more  savage  days  of  man,  will  have  a  voice  in  the  guid 
ance  of  this  nation,  that  this  ill-gotten  strength  is  suf 
ficiently  great  to  form  a  union  with  other  disaffected 
elements  that  can  endanger  the  welfare  of  the  nation 
and  even  the  peace  of  the  world.  It  is  not  a  very  far 
cry  from  making  speeches  blistering  the  Negroes  to 
the  giving  forth  of  rabid  utterances  in  the  halls  of 
Congress  that  needlessly  irritate  the  potential  leader  of 
the  colored  world,  the  Empire  of  Japan.  Schooled  in 
the  art  of  ignoring  the  sensibilities  of  Negroes,  repres- 
sionist  statesmanship  is  prepared  for  a  like  pastime  on  a 
larger  scale  regardless  of  the  cost. 

The  steamship,  the  cable,  the  printing  press,  the 
news-gathering  agencies,  the  mad  quest  of  riches,  the 
exigencies  of  commerce  are  conspiring  to  link  all  races 
of  men  together  as  never  before  in  all  the  world's  his 
tory.  Repression  furnishes  but  sorry  help  for  this  new 
order  of  things  in  which  men  of  many  races  must 
work  side  by  side,  each  worker  having  due  regard  for 
the  sensibilities  of  his  fellows. 

THE  ONE  SOLUTION. 

No ;  repression  will  not  do.  He  is  no  true  friend  to 
the  South,  to  the  nation,  nor  to  the  world  who  would 
have  the  South  journey  over  repression's  highway,  for 
that  is  assuredly  a  highway  of  skulls  and  leads  directly 
to  the  land  of  wreckage,  of  national  shame. 

Is  it  wise  to  spurn  the  work  of  souls  sobered  and 
deepened  by  an  insight  almost  divine  that  comes  with 
the  world's  great  crises?  Standing  at  the  end  of  a 
century  of  bitter  controversy  that  had  culminated  in  the 
horrors  of  civil  strife,  in  full  view  of  the  fresh-made 
graves  gripping  forever  so  many  of  the  loyal  sons  of 
both  sections,  with  bowed  head  the  nation  said  by  the 

54 


adoption  of  the  fifteenth  amendment:  We  who  would 
not  commit  our  welfare  unreservedly  to  King  George, 
though  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh ;  we  who 
could  not  endure  a  system  that  yielded  a  slave  to  the 
unbridled  passion  of  a  possible  Legree ;  we,  the  chast 
ened  by  the  fire  and  the  sword  of  the  God  of  Hosts, 
will  now  see  to  it  that  all  beneath  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
shall  be  equal  before  the  law,  each  armed  with  a  com 
mon  sword — the  ballot — with  which  to  ward  off  the 
encroachments  of  the  unjust  spirit  and  to  work  out  on 
our  shores,  in  amity  and  in  righteousness,  the  question 
of  the  whole  duty  of  man. 

Right  clearly  did  the  new  nation  builders  see  the 
very  touchstone  of  the  future  life  of  the  Republic  when 
they  decreed  that  the  Constitution  should  at  last  keep 
step  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  pro 
claims  that  "all  men  are  created  equal  and  endowed 
with  certain  inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life, 
liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  This  is  the  one 
solution  of  the  political  phase  of  the  question  of  the 
relation  of  the  races. 

A  PLAN  OF  ACTION. 

There  may  be  those  of  our  readers  ready  to  con 
cede  the  truthfulness  of  the  record  herein  presented; 
ready  to  admit  the  logic  of  the  deductions  drawn; 
ready  to  cry  out  against  our  nation's  accepting  repres 
sion  as  its  fixed  policy,  who  are  nevertheless  puzzled 
as  to  the  best  means  of  bringing  about  the  desired  re 
sult.  With  all  due  deference  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
task,  the  writer  begs  to  submit  the  following  sugges 
tions  : 

i.  As  occasion  arises,  let  the  exponents  of  public 
sentiment  in  the  country  at  large,  the  pulpit,  the  press, 
the  platforms  of  political  parties,  set  forth  in  calm  but 

55 


forcible  language  that  they  regard  any  suggestion  that 
the  nation  stop  with  the  Negro  at  some  half-way  house 
as  nothing  less  than  an  invitation  for  it  to  hug  a  corpse 
whose  decomposing  odors  will  mean  the  nation's  moral 
death.  Let  it  be  unambiguously  proclaimed,  in  spite  of 
northern  apostates  or  southern  reactionaries,  that  the 
genius  of  the  American  nation  will  never  in  all  the 
cycle  of  time  regard  any  question  as  settled  until  it  is 
settled  right. 

2.  Permit  us  to  renew  here  a  suggestion  made  by 
the  late  Mr.  Schurz,  that  agencies  be  established  with 
a  view  to  educating  public  opinion  in  the  South  on  this 
question.     There  are  men  in  the  South  among  both 
whites  and  colored  able  to  speak  to  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  the  people;  such  men  among  the  Negroes  as 
Prof.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  and  among  the  whites  as  W.  H. 
Fleming  and  E.  Gardner  Murphy,  together  with  others 
in   both   races.    Likewise   there   are  publications   by 
northern  writers,  such  as  Merriam's  "Negro  and  the 
Nation,"  that  beyond  doubt  would  do  great  good  if 
generally  read  in  the  South. 

Philanthropy  could  scarcely  do  the  world  a  better 
service  than  by  endowing  a  bureau  able  to  scatter  light 
throughout  the  South.  The .  terrible  price  socially, 
financially  and  politically  that  an  enemy  of  repression 
is  so  often  called  upon  to  pay  is  the  influence  that  re 
tards  the  movement  within  the  South  for  a  larger  life. 
Let  this  bureau  find  the  means  of  aiding  this  stifled 
force. 

3.  As  fast  as  the  nation,  in  justice  to  other  interests, 
can  so  do,  let  it  invite  to  high  station,  regardless  of 
party  affiliations,  such  white  men  in  the  South  as  make 
bold  to  resist  the  crusades  of  the  demagogues.    And 
when  the  nation  has  grown  to  the  point  where  it  can 

56 


call  to  its  executive  chair  an  acceptable  citizen  without 
regard  to  the  State  from  which  he  hails,  may  it  please  it 
to  honor  some  southern  white  man,  of  proper  caliber 
and  spirit,  who  has  not  bowed  his  knee  to  Baal. 
Whether  this  suggestion  comes  within  the  range  of 
practicability  or  not,  we  are  quite  certain  that  the 
nation  could  not  do  wiser  than  to  find  some  conspicuous 
way  of  making  it  known  in  the  South  that  a  just  atti 
tude  contains  far  more  of  promise  in  every  way  than 
demagogy. 

4.  Many  white  men  of  the  South  are  Democrats, 
not  because  of  hostility  to  the  Negro,  but  because  of 
their  opposition  to  the  Republican  party  along  other 
lines.    These  men  feel  that  they  cannot  join  hands  with 
the  Negroes  because  of  their  connection  with  the  Re 
publican  party,  while  the  Negroes  feel  that  they  cannot 
go  to  them  in  the  Democratic  party,  which  is  often  in 
the  South  the  bulwark  of  repression.  Let  the  intelligent 
Negroes  of  the  South  learn  a  lesson  from  recent  reform 
movements  in  various  parts  of  the  country  in  which 
men  in  different  parties  found  a  way  of  combining  for 
the  common  good.     Let  the  better  class  of  Negroes 
enter  politics  and  stand  ready  to  advance  the  interests, 
in  local  matters,  of  such  white  men  as  will  do  the  right 
by  all  the  people,  regardless  of  the  parties  with  which 
these  men  may  ally  themselves  when  it  comes  to  funda 
mental  ideas  of  government. 

5.  Finally,  Congress  has  been  given  the  power  to 
make  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution 
effective.    Let  it  act.    Let  it  see  to  it,  as  far  as  lies  with 
in  the  power  of  the  Federal  Government  to  so  do,  that 
all  men  of  equal  merit  are  given  like  opportunities  to 
express  their  choice  as  to  who  shall  exercise  rule  over 
them.     Let  it  withdraw  the  present  high  premium  on 

57 


repression  which  tempts  men  to  browbeat  rather  than 
uplift  and  treat  with  consideration  an  aspiring  element 
of  citizenship  whose  only  offense  is  the  wearing  of  the 
color  which  nature  gave. 

With  the  importance  that  will  attach  to  the  Negro 
voter  as  a  result  of  the  action  of  Congress  within  the 
bounds  set  for  it  by  the  Constitution,  as  a  fulcrum,  he 
will  be  able  to  form  such  alliances  as  will  materially 
aid  him  in  spheres  beyond  congressional  control.  Thus 
Congress  has  in  its  hands  the  key  to  the  whole  situa 
tion. 

May  the  present-day  dominant  element  of  the 
white  South  be  granted  the  wisdom  to  look  down  the 
corridors  of  time  and  behold  the  harvest  of  horrors  fore 
ordained  for  a  system  of  repression.  May  it  learn  that 
its  daughters  will  be  beautiful  and  charming,  its  sons 
chivalrous,  able  and  brave,  all  in  vain,  all  in  vain  if,  as 
their  souls  expand,  they  meet  the  dwarfing  influence  of 
the  soul-crushing  repressionist  system.  May  it  learn 
for  its  own  highest  good  that  even  a  foundation  must 
have  something  to  rest  upon,  that  its  industrial  base, 
the  Negro,  will  surely  render  their  entire  fabric  inse 
cure  if  given  quicksand  for  a  buttress,  if  denied  the 
protection  that  inheres  in  the  right  of  suffrage. 

However  dark  the  outlook  may  from  time  to  time 
appear  to  be,  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  ever  that  the 
chiefest  factor  working  toward  a  brighter  day  is  the 
deepening  darkness  itself,  brought  on  by  the  system  of 
repression.  This  system  day  by  day  and  night  by  night 
is  bearing  fruit,  is  clearly  demonstrating  its  inherent 
and  inescapable  tendencies,  is,  Haman  like,  building 
its  own  gallows  while  fancying  that  others  are  to  hang 
thereon. 


»  %  »  *  »  »  frHMH**  *  *  *  *******  *  *  *  *  *  ***  *  *  *  *  *  *  **** 


A  Picture  of  the  Life  of  the  Negro  Race  in  its 
Tragic,  Unequal  Struggle  in  the  Southland. 


"  '  Overshadowed  '  is  the  most 
interesting  book  it  has  been 
my  good  fortune  to  read  in  many 
a  day.  It  required  a  well- 

develorjed  mind  to  write  such  a  book.    It  has  my 

unqualified  endorsement." 


RT.    REV.  A.   WALTERS, 

Bishop  of  A.  M.  E. 

Zion  Church. 


"The  name  of  the  author  at    REV.  E.  C.  MORRIS,  D.  D. 
once  inspired   interest  in  the       President  National  Bap- 
volume,    and   I   read    it,    and  tist  Convention. 

while  it  deals  with  a  very  del 

icate  subject,  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  saying  that  it  is 
logical  and  chaste  in  every  detail.  It  can  be  trusted 
in  any  home." 

JOHN  E.  BRUCE.     "No   book    yet   written    by  any  au- 

(Bruco  Grit.)      thor     portrays     more    strikingly   and 

truly    the     real     conditions,    political 

and  social,   which  environ  the  Negro  than  'Over 

shadowed.'     If  'Overshadowed'  is  ever  dramatized, 

it  will  make  one  of   the  most  exciting  plays  ever 

written." 


Overshadowed,  217  Pages;  12mo. 
Cloth  Edition,  $1.00 ;  postage  prepaid. 
Paper  Edition,  50c.;  postage  prepaid. 


THE  ORION  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

Philadelphia,  Pa.          Nashville,  Tenn. 


"UNFETTERED" 


A  story  with  a  philosophical  bent  that  throws  a 
flood  of  light  on  the  whole  situation.  A  clear  voice 
from  the  inner  life  of  the  Negro  race,  showing  how 
the  Negro  views  his  own  problem.  Indicates  lines 
along  which  the  thoughtful  minds  of  the  race  feel 
that  salvation  is  to  come.  A  book  of  great  value  to 
all  interested  in  the  great  American  problem  : 

The  Philadelphia  Press: 

"Button  E.  Griggs,  who  wrote  a  rather  striking  'book 
called  '  Imperium  In  Imperio,'  has  produced  another  treat 
ment  of  the  Negro  problem  under  the  guise  of  fiction,  called 
'  Unfettered.'  The  book  is  serious,  it  is  readable,  and  it  is 
thoughtful." 

The  Philadelphia  Daily  Telegraph: 

"  The  book  in  question  has  many  elements  of  power ;  it  is 
sincere,  deep,  forcible  and  very  muoh  in  earnest." 

The  New  York  Werld: 

"The  writer's  utter  sincerity  maintains  for  him  and  his 
book  people  the  readers'  constant  interest  and  consideration." 

The  Chicago  Daily  News: 

"  The  author  is  evidently  a  man  of  education,  who  has  thought 
long  and  deeply." 

Rev.  J.  6.  Merrill,  President  Fisk  University,  Nashville,  Tena.: 

"  It  is  the  work  of  a  man  who  hat  given  profound  study  to  one 
of  the  most  vital  problems  of  the  hour.  The  story  is  interesting, 
the  plot  novel,  and  the  outcome  pleasing." 

The  Examiner,  New  York : 

"Button  E.  Griggs,  author  of  several  books  on  the  Negro  ques 
tion,  well  deserves  the  hearing  he  asks.    Those  who  are  interest-      *£ 
ed  in  this  problom  and  the  Negro's  way  of  looking  at  it,  will  be 
helped  by  Mr.  Griggs'  story,  'Unfettered.'  " 

The  Gazette,  Cleveland,  0.: 

"  Is  fascinating  in  the  extreme  and  will  hold  the  attention  of 
any  reader  throughout." 

Unfettered,  12 mo.;  276  pages;  Cloth  Binding 
Price,  $1.00,  postage  prepaid 

THE  ORION  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

Philadelphia,  Pa.          Nashville,  Tenn. 

E.  >>  *  *  *  *  *  *  >t«  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *****  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  X » 


By  SUTTON  E.  GR1GGS 


T   I 


BOOK  in  which  the  whole 
Southern  Situation  passes  in 
review  before  your  mind's-eye. 

The  most  complete 
The  most   thrilling 



The     ablest     story 


Yet  written  on  the  Southern  Situation 
from  the  Negro's  point  of  view. 

All    Americans   and    others   interested 

in  the  Great  American  Problem 

should  read  this  book. 

Bound  in  cloth,  I2mo, ;  305  pages 
Price,  $  J,0(X  Add  10  cts*  for  postage 

THE  ORION  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

Philadelphia,  Pa.        Nashville,  Tenn. 


*  *  ** *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  4'  *  *  *  *  *  * 


OF  INTEREST  TO  ALL 

We  make  a  specialty  of  all  books 
of  peculiar  interest  to  the  American 
people  bearing  upon  the  race  question 
in  the  United  States.  If  you  have 
seen  or  heard  of  any  such  book  that 
interests  you  and  would  like  to  own  it, 
order  the  same  through  us. 

Such  books  as  we  do  not  publish 
ourselves  will  be  promptly  secured  for 
you. 

THE  ORION  PUBLISHING  CO. 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Nashville,  Tenn. 


t 
* 


* 
* 


* 


A  Special 
Offer 


BEYOND  all  question  Sut- 
ton  E.  Griggs  is  the  ac 
cepted  spokesman  in  the 
realm  of  fiction  of  the  cultured, 
aspiring  Negroes  of  the  United 
States.  Any  library  of  American 
literature  is  incomplete  without 
copies  of  Mr.  Griggs'  books, 
which  bring  to  the  world  of  let 
ters  the  offering  of  the  culture  of 
the  Negro  race  in  the  line  of 
fiction.  Take  note  of  our  special 
offer: 

"Overshadowed"    -    -    -  $1.00 

"Unfettered"      ....  1.00 

"The  Hindered  Hand"    -  1.00 

Total $3.00 

To  persons  ordering  the 
three  works  at  one  time, 
$2.25. 

ADD  20  CENTS  FOR  POSTAGE 


$  THE  ORION  PUBLISHING  CO. 

2 

<*  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Tenn. 


'I' 


£7 


